Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)
As Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker keeps talking in preparation for a 2016 presidential run, we're learning that his major foreign policy belief is that the way for a president or governor to demonstrate resolve against foreign enemies is by attacking American workers. Also, probably not incidentally, it's something Walker sees himself as having in common with the Republican holy of holies, Ronald Reagan.
Last week, speaking at CPAC, Walker explained that he could handle ISIS because "If I can take on a hundred thousand protesters, I can do the same across the world." It wasn't the first time he made such a claim. He'd previously said that his union-busting "would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin." And Saturday, speaking at the Club for Growth, Walker doubled down on an implicit comparison between his own anti-union actions and Reagan's:
I would contend the most significant foreign policy decision in my lifetime was made by a president who was previously a governor. A president who made a decision that wasn’t even about foreign policy. It was in August of 1981, when Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers.
Because resolve and manly fortitude, or something. Because if I'll do this to my own people, people whose votes I need, you can just imagine what I'll do to you, you commie/Muslim/generic foreign bastards! The problem for Walker is that, as fully aboard the anti-worker train as Republicans are these days, it's still hard to imagine "I'll be tough on Putin and terrorists like I was tough on American workers" as the entire foreign policy message for a serious presidential campaign. But so far, it's what he has, and he seems to feel really good about this message.