Where We Have Gone Wrong and Can It Be Fixed
It does not matter which political party is in power, but U.S. foreign policy is an institutional failure. My observation is that foreign policy is considered the redheaded bastard stepchild by the political establishment because it is a messy endeavor with limited immediate impact. Foreign policy requires serious people who have a depth of expertise and a strategic vision to not only look at the most pressing issues but who understand the second and third level effects, in other words a political unicorn. The "normal" political modus operandi is: only in moments of crisis and/or turmoil does the political machine focus on foreign policy. A simplistic model of how the U.S. addresses a crisis: The first reaction is to the blame the opposing political party for setting the conditions to embolden the crisis. Next, there may be some diplomatic advances/maneuvering but only to buy time for economic sanctions or approval to deploy military power. At this point there are one of