Create a vacuum, and China and Russia will fill it, and their authoritarian styles of government will fill much more of the world.
Trump’s “America First” version of isolationism, and Rand Paul’s, are wrong. This is a free country, and voters are entitled to make mistakes. But that doesn’t make their way of thinking less of a mistake.
Since the Cold War’s end, America has been the world’s sole superpower. Some — perhaps many — Americans chafe at the expenses and obligations that come with that role. In any case, we’re going to lose that status, and in the least desirable way. We’re about to face superpower competition again.
If we leave the field, China will be the sole superpower. Do you want to live in that kind of world?
Foreign Affairs magazine argues in greater detail why America must stay on the global stage and continue to be the world’s pre-eminent, if not only, superpower (here). You have to navigate past a paywall to access the article, but I think it’s free if you jump through some hoops. I’ll leave that up to you.
Isolationist sentiment in the U.S. reached its zenith in the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Great War and shadow of another looming European war. Then, two wide oceans between us and Europe’s and Asia’s troubles still gave us some feeling of security, although it proved to be an illusory and false sense of security. Today, any nuclear-armed superpower can attack any other country in minutes, and Russia and China are nuclear-armed superpowers.
And, anyway, do we want to be without friends in the world? Do we want to be a fair-weather friend? Giving up Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and western Europe to authoritarian domination should be unthinkable. Without friends, allies, and forward bases, we would become like Britain in the early days of World War 2, a beseiged island in a sea of dictatorship and oppression. Except unlike Britain, we would have no America behind us, to seek help from, we would be alone with our fate.
And, finally, if we stand for anything besides our commercial interests (i.e., our trade alliances), if we are to view ourselves as a principled people with a superior civilization, then we have to defend what’s good in the world and actively oppose evil.