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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (26516)	1/27/2004 9:03:45 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

I am long of the Ayn Rand school of self interest. Gee, I would have never guessed. :>) Every book she has ever written is still available in hardcover. She sold over 300,000 books last year. I sit here with a copy of Peikoff's "Objectivism" in the bookcase next to me. I was just watching "Imus" on MSNBC and the "Morning line" seems to be Kerry 38%, Dean 24%, Edwards 12%, Clark and Lieberman 9%. Dean would be in trouble but he has too much money to be run off. The media will be "can Edwards catch Kerry?" by tonight.

To: Lane3 who wrote (26516)	1/28/2004 1:22:00 AM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

...what you get is the US declining to abrogate any of its autonomy while expecting other countries to do so. To me that is an arrogant, cavalier, and far from enlightened. It is in that context that I spoke of unilateralism--the unilateralist attitude, not an individual unilateral act when necessary. Nonsense. What you get is the US declining to abrogate any of its autonomy, while expecting others to appreciate that America acting in its own self-interest has the "second-order effect" of furthering the greater good. It comes down to desiring others to recognize the United States as a benevolent force in the world. If you are a Rand fan, you can surely understand the argument that altruism is not the standard of good. Like capitalist economics, the self-interested actions of all parties benefits all. If we're going to express US hegemony as the benevolent despot, we need to be a lot smarter than we are and a lot more diplomatic. What you mean is, we need to blow smoke up people's asses. That isn't describing things as they are, it is being apologetic for our strength. Something Clinton did well. It isn't of much benefit when the chips are down. Derek