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BATR RealPolitik Newsletter

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Sept. 26, 2013

America First Foreign Policy

Advocate for a non-interventionist foreign policy

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America First is Populism in action

Most people associate the term America First with foreign policy. While the implication speaks loudly for a pro national stand, most ignore the tradition that Populism is at the core of the movement. In order to understand the heritage, one should examine the most overt aspects of this tradition. Professor Ralph Raico, states the case for an American First foreign policy in his book - The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars. He refers to the following motto used by Richard Cobden, the libertarian theorist of international relations:

“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is — in extending our commercial relations — to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

While the sordid history of mindless interventionism is widely available, most detractors want to rely upon the canard that isolationism from world affairs is the goal for advocates of the America First philosophy. How insincere, such a reproach is and disingenuous are these critics. Clearly those who accept the wisdom of Washington and Adams, understand that it applies today and has the same validity as when the nation embarked on its unique journey in self governance.

"All that is needed to set us definitely on the road to a Fascist society is war. It will of course be a modified form of Fascism at first."

John T. Flynn

THE PATTERN OF EMPIRE

from the article Garet Garrett on Empire by Joseph R. Stromberg

Garrett saw six major characteristics as defining the imperial syndrome.

The first was executive supremacy within the state.

The second was that "Domestic policy becomes subordinate to foreign policy." Anyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties will remember how all proposals, most of them bad, could be dressed up as necessary to win the Cold War.

Third: "Ascendancy of the military mind, to such a point that the civilian mind is intimidated." He quotes a surprising source in support of this proposition, General Douglas MacArthur: "Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense…. Indeed it is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear."

Fourth: "A system of satellite nations." I think we can agree that this hits the mark. Indeed, as the whole world – from London to Vladivostok – weighs NATO membership, it seems that we have even more. Not to mention our latest acquisition, Kosovo, soon to be united, no doubt, with our satellite Greater Albania.

Fifth: "A complex of fear and vaunting." This is Garrett at his most subtle. He had seen the Imperial Overlords vacillate between giddy fits of grandeur and sharp attacks of fear, as if they believed their own propaganda. They were very good at inducing these feelings in the people. For further research into the complex of fear and vaunting, I suggest a program of occasional reading of the New Republic and the Weekly Standard, where the syndrome is on regular display.

Sixth and last: The empire becomes "A prisoner of history." This is the worst feature of all, and all the Compassionate Conservatism in the world won't help us here, short of repudiating empire and all its works. Someone tell ole George, will ya?

Voters Want Foreign Policy Focused on Protecting America First A third of U.S. voters believe President Obama’s foreign policy tends to blame America first, while a slightly larger number thinks congressional Republicans instinctively send Americans first to resolve international conflicts. Voters overwhelmingly want a policy that protects the United States first.

The Legacy of the America First Committee
by Justin Raimondo

For the legacy of America First is our legacy: it is the heritage of all those who see war as the health of the state, and our policy of global intervention as the main obstacle to the restoration of our old Republic. We must know where we've been so that we know where we are going: and that is why any study of the AFC is not just an interesting bit of history, but a subject we must master in order to make sense out of what is happening today.

America Needs No More Neo-Imperial Nonsense by Patrick J. Buchanan

America needs a new foreign policy rooted in today’s reality, not in yesterday’s cold war or in tomorrow’s dream of global democracy. Let us cease our interventions and call a halt to our endless hectoring. How other nations rule themselves is not really the US’s business. If there is nation-building to be done, let it begin here.

House Republicans Defund Obamacare Showdown

The news that GOP House Representatives voted in favor of a celebrated defunding bill certainly has long dormant political soothsayers coming out in force with reports from their congressional sources. A good old-fashioned brash knucklers fight gets everyone juiced up. Freedom Works is pushing a petition to Tell Congressional Republicans to Defund ObamaCare in 2013. While the Huffington Post reports, Red State Democrats Oppose Republican Effort To Defund Obamacare. With all the political pundits eager to share their version of wisdom, we get conclusions as varied as the stars that represent the states.

(Read the entire "Strappado Wrack" essay)

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is launching a foreign policy institute focused on undercutting U.S. interventionism.

"The neo-conservative era is dead," proclaims the media advisory on his Facebook page announcing the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Corporate Profits and Worker Unemployment

The informative business publication, Zero Hedge, featured the voice of common sense and economic insight, Rick Santelli.

"CNBC's Rick Santelli asks the (rhetorical) question that everyone should ask: "[What the Fed minutes said] is, listen, we have to wait for bigger confirmation that the economy is doing better; and for that, we're going to look at the employment side. [At the same time] we have the fewest people working that can work in 30 years, and all-time-record-high profits for corporations. Now, does that strategy sound rational to you?" It seems, now that Bernanke has seemingly promised that it will really never end, that Santelli's question will become increasingly critical in this country."

(Read the entire "Negotium" essay)

BATR Partner Publishers: Jeff Rense

Jeff Rense produces and hosts the most consistently fascinating, intriguing, and definitely not always politically-correct talk and information program in radio. In addition to nationwide broadcast affiliates and independent radio outlets, The Jeff Rense Program is probably the world's most listened-to radio program on the internet. The program Archives are considered unmatchable in broadcast journalism...19 years of programs, over 10,000 hours of programs and over 15,000 guests.

His Rense.com internet site is one of the world's elite and most referenced 24-hour news services. Rense.com archives close to 200,000 pages of stories, articles, comments, reports and news features. Rense.com is a powerhouse and sits firmly in the top .001% of the sites on the internet.

Rense.com

Five Principles of Useful Political Activism

1) Be on the side of the angels.

Asking your legislator to vote your way is asking them to potentially encourage an opponent to run against them in a primary or a general election. Can you frame your argument to give your position the presumptive moral high ground? If you can, you have an action that reaches above party lines.

Always imagine that what you ask of your legislator will be on the front page of the legislator’s local newspaper. Your very first task is to make him/her look good in front of his/her constituents and have solid, fact-based data/proof to support your claim. The goal is to pass your legislation and build a relationship with the elected official. Ideally, your representative will see you as trustworthy source of information, and as someone who knows how to protect long-term interests.

2) Make your opponents uncomfortable.

If your opponent has an argument nearly as strong as yours, the legislator’s default position is not to act. Legislators hate to galvanize a group of special-issue voters against them because they know those voters remember the past. When planning your activism, it’s important that you examine the arguments of the individuals with contrary positions. Figure out how to frame your position as the best solution to a gnawing problem so that your opposition is portrayed as heartless to the public need in the elected official’s district.

3) Carefully select and groom the advocates who will present your position.

If your industry has the strength of diversity, demonstrate that diversity at every public and political event you hold. In a world where generalizations of an industry are a matter of convenience, your efforts to dispute those generalizations are critical to your success. For example, IWLA often times asserts the openness of logistics career ladders by gathering studies by government groups that show the career progression, the diversity of the workforce, and the industry’s attention to safety and human resources. This requirement is crucial when dealing with groups that cherry-pick employers who have exploitation charges against them. Know your opponents tactics and have your spokespeople represent the full diversity spectrum of your workforce.

4) Stay on message.

Ask for one thing, keep to one thing and be happy when you obtain that one thing. Never be seen as greedy.

5) Always be gracious, even when you lose.

Politics is a long process that can revive itself when least expected. Losing today teaches you how to win tomorrow. You create future opportunities for yourself and your clients by thanking your sponsors and treating your opponents with respect.

This new fax request has been posted in your Action Buffet based on your answers to the Interest Survey.

You can find this fax request by proceeding to https://www.numbersusa.com/faxes?ID=15418

The House Judiciary Committee has already passed four immigration bills this Congress and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the committee's chairman, says work is going on behind the scenes to write bills addressing other immigration topics. Rep. Goodlatte also said that he hopes the House will start to vote on immigration bills in October.

While a couple of the bills approved by the Judiciary Committee are helpful, the passage of any of the bills could result in a mass amnesty for illegal aliens. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin have made it very clear that they will use any single-issue House-passed immigration bill as a vehicle to pass their mass amnesty legislation.

Please send a fax to your U.S. Representative and urge him/her to ask Speaker Boehnher not to hold any immigration floor votes until the Senate's "Gang of Eight" bill is truly dead.

THE NUMBERSUSA ACTION TEAM

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Stop the Next War Now

Citizen Power

It is this concept of citizen power that is being foregrounded in the book Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. It argues that

ordinary citizens can exert enough pressure to turn around a government hell-bent towards war.

This book is a pacifist manual of pragmatic perspectives and actions stemming from experience. However, it is not aimed at a global audience, although there is much here that is useful in lobbying many countries around the world. This book is specifically aimed at an American audience: the same American audience that in the 1970s successfully lobbied its government to end the Vietnam War, the Americans who vote for their leaders, the Americans who consume the oil that drives the war in the Middle East.

What is Conservative Populism?

Do you consider yourself a conservative? Many well intentioned but misguided souls like to maintain a fallacy that they are part of the right-wing; especially when they support Republicans. These bewildered partisans have bought into an illusion that a conservative is a supporter of the status quo. They often believe that any politician who proclaims they are a champion of a GOP regime are really traditionalists. Some even go so far as to consider it impossible for any Democrat to hold any sentiments that could possibly resemble a conservative viewpoint.

While it is difficult to speak well of any Democrat over the last century, it is becoming exceedingly routine to reject Republican party loyalists as just camouflaged clones for socialist policies. Calling yourself a conservative, does not mean you walk the walk . . .

Read the entire essay from the Global Gulag archives

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Where do you stand on ObamaCare?

Click here or on the "YES" button below to join the grassroots effort to defund and delay ObamaCare prior to its implementation on October 1:

However, if you support the President's massive health care takeover, then DO NOTHING. You will not be counted among those Americans who are, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) says, "standing our ground" on ObamaCare.

NO2

If this is your position, keep in mind this final effort to defund the "Affordable" Care Act isn't about Republicans trying to shutdown the government. In fact, GOP lawmakers have said repeatedly that they do support funding every other part of the federal government.

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Just Keep Stumbling into Peace

If America was not intimidated by thousands of nuclear weapons in Soviet silos and on Soviet submarines, does Tehran think an Iranian bomb is going to frighten the Americans out of the Gulf?

In short, the United States, Russia, Syria, and even Iran have a cold interest in no wider war in Syria.

Unfortunately, powerful forces across the Middle East, and right here in River City, believe they have a vital interest in bringing about just such a war.

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Charles Lindbergh Stands for America First and Against Militarism, Interventionism

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