Foreign Policy is about Substance and Deeds – Not Words

Fareed Zakaria said on CNN Sunday that the United States should conduct foreign policy in accordance with its interests and values.

He was, of course, deriding Donald Trump’s style of foreign policy. And surprise, surprise, Fareed was critical of Trump’s handling of it.

He, like all other leftists, just can’t seem to wrap their collective pin-heads around the Trump way.

Zakaria says that “America’s foreign policy should not be based on personalities. Donald Trump’s worldview seems utterly rooted in his likes and dislikes of other leaders – from Kim Jong Un to Angela Merkel to MBS [Mohammad bin Salman].”

In other words, from the left’s vacuous vantage point, Trump favors whom he appears to like and vice versa.

Zakaria adds that America’s foreign policy, “requires nuance, sophistication, and ceaseless, high-quality diplomacy. But that is the price of being the leader of the free world. A job we appear of late to have simply vacated.”

Wow, Fareed – those are some powerful words. But that’s all they are – just words.

And this is the problem (one of many) with the left. They are so steeped in symbolism, nuance, and sophistication over substance that it’s the only thing they recognize, so it’s the thing on which they judge Trump.

Leftist political leaders have been and continue to be all talk. They live in the “nuanced” gray areas. They appear to favor sophistication over actual accomplishments. And those in the leftist media don’t just hang on every word but believe every word. For them, everything is words, with nothing to back them up. It’s why they love diplomacy. Diplomats string words together in a seemingly endless train of nothingness, and when they finish, they declare a job well done.

Then along comes someone like Trump who is decidedly not nuanced, has no air of sophistication but uses words like the pieces on a chess board. Trump will just throw out a line, positive or negative, about this leader or that just, like moving a pawn on chess board – to gauge how his counterpart will react.

The left can’t understand this, for to them, words are everything – symbolism is everything. They thought the world would end by Trump merely paying a compliment to North Korean leader Kim. They don’t see the strategy behind the words, despite the successes Trump has already had using this tact.

It’s obvious Trump is no fan of Kim and his barbaric regime, but by appearing to respect him, Trump has accomplished more than all his predecessors combined. It was Trump who freed American citizens and halted the aggressive use of missile launches in that region. A compliment or two is a small price to pay for that kind of progress.

For almost two years, we on the right have reminded America not to judge the president by what he says or tweets, but rather by his many accomplishments thus far.

And it appears to be working for an increasing cross-section of America. But for leftists who evidently believe that words are as powerful as deeds, it’s like water off a duck’s back.