Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Kerry Makes It Official: 'The era of the Roosevelt Corollary Is Over'

You may have seen the news by now that John Kerry said the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over. Problem is, if you read what he said he isn't substantively talking about the Monroe Doctrine. He's talking about the Roosevelt Corollary. John Kerry(a progressive) is rejecting his own history! Theodore Roosevelt is one of John Kerry's own founding fathers, being the first President of the Progressive era. So what exactly did John Kerry say? Among other things:
The relationship that we seek and that we have worked hard to foster is not about a United States declaration about how and when it will intervene in the affairs of other American states. It’s about all of our countries viewing one another as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues, and adhering not to doctrine, but to the decisions that we make as partners to advance the values and the interests that we share.

With "other American states", Kerry means countries such as those in the Gulf, Central, or South America. So what does the Roosevelt Corollary say? It is laid out in the The President's Annual Message to Congress of 1904. Among other things:

Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.

This is the typical arrogance from progressives that drives me out of my mind. The Monroe Doctrine was generally a defensive declaration, while it is Theodore Roosevelt who lays out a programme of imperialist aggression. Not only has Kerry turned the doctrine on its head, Roosevelt also turned the Monroe Doctrine on its head 100+ years ago.

One thing that progressives will never want people to discover is that "American Imperialism" is a very important ingredient in the mixture of what would become progressivism. They own it, and Theodore Roosevelt is the key to unlocking the door to yet another dismal chapter in the history of progressivism.

http://tinyurl.com/kpxc28y

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