Dan Perry
The world was hugely interested in the U.S. presidential election—and everywhere people are wondering what the return of Donald Trump will mean in geopolitics. But is America interested in the world? Increasingly, and certainly judging by the inwardly focused campaign, not so much.
Which is a serious departure from the post-World War II consensus.
American voters were rarely much animated by foreign policy, but the political establishment certainly was. And if you hear speeches by presidents from Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush and Barack Obama you will observe a striking bipartisan consensus about using American might to further democracy, freedom, and liberal values.
"Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity, and integrity among peoples and among nations," said the Republican Eisenhower, in his 1961 farewell address. "We dream of a world where all are fed and charged with hope, and we will help to make it so," said the Democrat Lyndon Johnson, in 1967.
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