CW: This episode features discussions of alcohol, domestic abuse, homicide, and death
I was really grateful to hear the discussion about American foreign policy on this episode. It seems like American intervention has just been this constant unquestionable fact of life throughout my whole life. The idea of scaling back on our military intervention strategies just doesnāt seem to come up. In this upcoming democratic primary, I know that at least Tulsi Gabbard has made anti-intervention into a fairly significant part of her campaign (judging by what she said in CNN Town Hall she did about a month ago), and I know that Mike Gravel is attempting to get onto the Debate stage in order to specifically push anti-intervention ideals (though heās 88 years-old and seems to have little desire to actually take part in the election).
This is a significant issue for me, partially why Iāve leaned towards Gabbard over other candidates at this point in the race, because I see American military intervention as a significant, over-arching issue that affects Americans negatively in other cultural and economic contexts. The fact that itās so rare for the idea of scaling back on our military & economic presence in other nationsā affairs to actually appear in electoral discourse is disheartening to say the least. But itās important for discussions like the one on this ep of Waypoints to happen, hopefully it gets other listeners also thinking about this!
Also Owen Hart died in my hometown and they only finally remodeled the arena he died in, Kansas Cityās Kemper Arena, like last year so what Iām about to refer to is probably gone, but - They used to have these sort of photomontage boards around Kemper Arenaās main concourse which showed some of the athletic moments that took place there (There were NCAA Final Fours, the KC Kings of the 1970s NBA, a number of minor-league hockey teams). But they never celebrated or even mentioned the arenaās wrestling history, probably for that reason. I donāt even think WWE came back to Kemper between Owenās death and the opening of an arena in downtown KC in 2006
Natalie out here yelling, āBRET SCREWED BRETā
In regards to what the dem candidates eventual positions well be I think the good money well be on them playing it small c conservatively, and advocating for a return to the status quo, particularly in the state department. Currently the state department is dramatically understaffed, with several key positions left unfilled for some time. A high profile example of this is at the time the North Korean summit was being held, there was no chief diplomat in South Korea. Iām guessing the rhetoric well surround, restaffing the state department, leading the world on climate change, South China Sea(maaaaybe), restoring Americaās reputation. Probably the two best ways a candidate well have to distinguish themselves on a substantive policy issue is 1) leading on climate issues (an easy lane for the progressives or even neo libs to talk about āleaders in innovationā) and 2) weather or not to restore the Israeli embassy to Tel Aviv or not, this is live wire that Iām not sure anyone well want to touch but if Iām Amy Klobuchar, or one of the other 2ed tier centrists and Iām desperate to own a news cycle I might just venture an opinion.
The Joyous Gamer is cancelled
Iām very here for 5 star podcasts 5 star run times being the waypoint motto.
One work Iād love the Waypoint staff to dig into (if they wanted to contoninue down this foreign policy consideration path) would be a work like Frederik Logevallās Choosing War, which is a book that attempts to assess Lyndon B. Johnsonās foreign policy and, in essence, ask the question of how the U.S. āfell intoā the Vietnam War quagmire.
The bookās thesis (and the reason for my tactical scare quotes) is that the thesis is that, in essence, the U.S. didnāt āfall intoā the Vietnam War, but Johnson, a reformer at home keen to strengthen the New Deal era with his Great Society package, consistently relegated foreign policy to a second-tier status. Consequently, he took the short-term solution each time an issue came up, resulting in military interventions in the Dominican Republic in 1965 (which Logevall spends little time with) and the Vietnam War throughout his presidency (which Logevall focuses on).
I think itād be an interesting companion piece, even if excerpted to a chapter or two to fit into a Waypoints segment.
To me, that kind of domestic-first, foreign-policy-second mindset that Johnson seems to represent does cast a shadow over our current moment of leftist hesitancy and indecisiveness on the topic. Would a leftist president be another Johnson?
