Forbes magazine has posted Ron Paul's response to a recent candidate questionnaire. In a chart, Forbes reports that Ron Paul's views on foreign policy are extremely to the left. Is right wing defined by merely being a Republican policy and left wing merely a Democratic one? Such a partisan definition necessarily lacks substance since either party can change and has changed what kind of ideals it follows, both left and right? In the American political sphere, right wing is better defined as a general adherence to freedom classically understood (life, liberty, property) while left wing is better defined as a general adherence to collectivism (socialism, fascism, "freedom from...")? To which I ask, how is a foreign policy derived from Washington's farewell address, Jefferson's inaugural address, Quincy Adams' admonition, and Eisenhower's admonition left wing? As such, is Forbes implying that a foreign policy which originates in the ideals of manifest destiny, Woodrow Wilson's progressivism in WWI, Franklin Roosevelt's WWII, Truman's Korea, and Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam is somehow on the right?
D'Souza tries to reconcile the notions of life, liberty, and property with foreign adventurism by arguing that we should promote these ideals abroad as long as it is done at a reasonable price. However, in doing so, he arguably lies in the left wing notions of the Enlightenment that liberty could be spread by a centralized force. Both Napoleon and GW Bush have demonstrated what a disastrous undertaking this is. I think it may be impossible to reconcile right wing notions of the Enlightenment with foreign adventurism, namely because its undertaking necessarily subverts the Lockean notions of life, liberty, and property. D'Souza says this can be done at a reasonable price, but where does one draw the line of a reasonable price? It seems the Constitution answers with requirements of due process and limited enumerated powers, like the congressional power to declare war. Once we step into the notions of a strong executive with unlimited powers to subvert life, liberty, and property, we're stepping into ideals of government enamored in a collectivist mindset, hence the characterization as left wing. Ron Paul's foreign policy seeks to eliminate the subversion of life, liberty, and property by restoring the federal government to limited enumerated powers defined by the Constitution.
Which brings us back to the question, how is Ron Paul's foreign policy left wing?
