Sanders has the economy pretty much figured out. But he needs to connect his case for rebuilding America to foreign policy and make it one continuous, compelling argument.
Right now he makes the argument that judgment matters. That Clinton voted for the biggest foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam War. And that he voted against it. But he doesn’t develop the argument. Given that Clinton has a world of experience that Sanders doesn’t have, this is what he should say.
1. This is all one problem. Our foreign policy has to be an expression of who we are as a people.
2. Clinton’s decision to put war powers in the hands of George Bush and Dick Cheney was a COLOSSAL error of judgment. One that has cost trillions of dollars, over half a million lives…it is a decision that will be regarded as one of the worst foreign policy decisions in our history.
3. We went to war in Iraq as a completely misguided response to an attack on our country mostly by citizens of Saudi Arabia. After 9/11 the U.S. had the sympathy of almost the entire world. This was a potentially watershed moment for forging a worldwide alliance against terrorism. We blew this entirely.
4. What we have done in the Middle East is destabilize an entire region and create new enemies. This is not a smart foreign policy. This is not who we are as a people.
This is what we need to do. And it’s not going to be easy.
1. We need to start treating terrorists as criminals, not giving them the credibility as enemies of the U.S.
2. We need to start giving out more people-to-people aid and less military aid to dictators who we agree with today and disagree with tomorrow. As much as people in some countries hate us, they also look up to us and love our culture and many aspects of our way of life.
3. We need to rethink the weapons we are building. We are building super-sophisticated, enormously expensive weapons systems. What if our defense budget was twice as smart and half as expensive?
4. We need to understand that our strength abroad also comes from how successful we are at home, how strong our economy is, how good we are at taking care of our own people.
5. Our trade policies are sending the wrong message to the world. We need to start backing trade, and data, and internet policies that favor our people, not corporations.
(Anyway, it’s getting late and I think you get the idea. Please add your two cents.)