The Palin Foreign Policy Doctrine

What is a conservative foreign policy?

In light of Obama’s morally indefensible and dyslexic policies regarding Egypt, Iran, Israel, Libya, and Syria, it is important that our eventual presidential nominee articulate a bold distinction in the realm of foreign policy.

Conservative domestic policy doctrine is quite indubitable and lucid (except among many elected Republicans); limited government, free enterprise, protection of individual liberties, limitation of criminal liberties, secure borders, and a robust civil society.  Foreign policy is more ambiguous because it is governed more by prudence than by doctrine.  Even though the overarching principle of any foreign policy initiative is American exceptionalism, the murkiness of America’s security interests has long blurred the distinction between divergent foreign policies.

During the Bush years, the distinction between “liberal” and “conservative” foreign policy was obfuscated even further due to President Bush’s embrace of neoconservative principles such as democratization and human rights interventions.  Also, the only opposition from the right which percolated into the media was the voices of those like Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan, who believed that our involvement in the Middle East and support of Israel served as the impetus for Islamic terror.

As such, the average political observer was presented with a false choice of conservative foreign policy between the so-called neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and so-called paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan.  Moreover, many conservatives, desiring to emphatically repudiate the detestable behavior of the anti-war movement, became inclined to reflexively support foreign intervention at any cost simply to “stay the course” and oppose the anti-war left.  These conservatives continue to injudiciously support an open ended commitment in Afghanistan and Libya, despite serious concerns to our national interests.

Earlier this week, Sarah Palin articulated the principles of a foreign policy that are neither neoconservative nor paleoconservative; rather plain old conservative.  Speaking at the Colorado Christian University for a military charity fundraiser, Governor Palin outlined the following commonsense principles for foreign intervention:

Time to End Fed's Dual Mandate of Destruction

Let's pin the inflation tail on the big government/big Wall Street donkey.

Recent economic reports of Obamanomics have shown dismal GDP growth, rising jobless claims, an anemic dollar, and soaring inflation; all indications of stagflation.  There are two components to stagflation; high unemployment and high inflation.  The unemployment, along with the weak economic growth, is due in large part to Obama's Keynesian fiscal policy of overtaxing, overspending, over-subsidizing, and over-regulating.  While the profligate spending and corporate welfare are also responsible in part for inflation and the devaluation of the dollar, the major culprit is Obama's Keynesian monetary policy of near-zero interest rates and printing money (QE I and II). 

Both reckless spheres of Keynesian economics are supported by corporate cronies on Wall Street who benefit from true "handouts to the rich" to the determent of the rest of us through price-hiking market distortions.  Unfortunately, there is no single silver bullet to ending the cumbersome socialist fiscal policy (although, a spending amendment would go a long way).  The pernicious monetary policy, however, can be eliminated through one act of Congress; ending the Federal Reserve's mandate to control the economy (H.R. 245-Mike Pence).

In 1977, Congress vested the Federal Reserve with a dual mandate of stimulating the economy and job growth in addition to keeping a stable currency.  This has allowed the Fed to become a fourth branch of government by initiating its own stimulus policies of printing money.  These stimulus policies exacerbate the fiscal stimuli of the other branches of government by devaluing the remaining dollars that we own (non-borrowed money).

Hence, as much as Obama's trillions in stimulus and bailouts have bankrupted the country, Ben Bernanke's $600 billion monetary stimulus has attenuated the value of our remaining savings and spiked the cost of vital commodities across the world.  Additionally, their rash intervention in the credit market was one of the big culprits of the housing crisis.  Thus, while the Fed seeks to achieve a dual mandate of low unemployment and low inflation, they are ultimately inimical to both goals.  It's time for House leadership to bring Mike Pence's H.R. 245 to a floor vote and end the Fed's overreach into our economy.