I finally finished @jackbutler4815's interminable slog of an essay purporting to take aim at me on @SohrabAhmari on foreign policy.

It is candidly not worth responding to in full, but here are a few quick thoughts. nationalreview.com/2021/08/reflex…
First, on a personal note, I'd like to thank @NRO (some employees of whom I certainly consider friends) for apparently living rent-free in their heads this week. There was also @baseballcrank's fusillade against common good originalism. nationalreview.com/2021/08/explai…
(I responded to that piece with this thread.)
I'd also like to note that I believe I'm at least the third @AmMomentOrg advisory board member (after @JDVance1 and @esaagar) who Butler has come after in bizarrely ad hominem terms. So be forewarned, @rachelbovard and @Schilling1776—y'all are probably next!
Turning to Butler's "substance," he manages to write an entire hectoring, self-righteous essay bullying two fellow conservative opinion/submissions editors without landing a single actual blow. Literally not a single one. All I see is a bizarre misinterpretation of Federalist 11.
More importantly, anyone who knows me *at all* can easily tell you that I would never in a million years self-identify as an "isolationist." I am a hardcore Zionist and I retain hawkish instincts vis-à-vis America's actual threats—China, Russia, Iran, etc.
The entire argument against moralistic nation-building boondoggles in third-world tribal backwaters such as Afghanistan is that they are ultimately *detrimental* to the national interest and distract from our ability to adequately counter our actual strategic threats.
I also adamantly support the use of pinprick strikes and narrowly targeted uses of force to take out America's legitimate enemies, such as the January 2020 strike against Qassem Soleimani (ditto the September 2011 strike against Anwar al-Awlaki, etc.).

Sohrab too, I believe.
In general, this notion that any deviation from neoconservative moralistic interventionism "orthodoxy" makes one an "isolationist" is worse than a false dichotomy—it is outright intellectual dishonesty masquerading as principled conservative "gatekeeping."

It's pathetic.
This was the concluding paragraph of my syndicated column this past week. Does this sound like an "isolationist" to you? Really?
What is so difficult to grasp, for some people, that a national interest-centric, "Jacksonian," prudential, "America First" (use whichever label you want) foreign policy exists between the "isolationist" and neoconservative/interventionist extremes?
Michael Anton did as good a job as anyone of laying that out here. foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/20/the…
In short, Butler has doused a field of straw men in gasoline and applied an industrial-grade blowtorch. But I’m not sure he’s thus far demonstrated that he’s capable of much else in the public-facing arena.

\fin

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More from @josh_hammer

20 Aug
It's been a busy week. Here's a little recap.

1. On Tuesday, we released a really fun episode of @NewsweekOpinion's "The Debate" podcast: "Vaccine Mandates: Public Necessity or Government Tyranny?" art19.com/shows/the-deba…
2. On Tuesday night, I wrote my first piece on the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, for @nypost, focusing on the great-power competition angle: "China outflanking US in the wake of Biden’s Afghan debacle." nypost.com/2021/08/17/chi…
3. On Wednesday, I published my latest piece with @CityJournal, this time looking at problems with using "public-nuisance" litigation as a way to hold Big Pharma accountable for the opioid crisis. city-journal.org/opioid-lawsuit…
Read 8 tweets
19 Aug
I appreciate @baseballcrank's continued engagement with common good originalism. I won't write another new essay defending CGO (I recently did something similar in response to @JohnGGrove1: thepublicdiscourse.com/2021/07/76917/), so here is just a quick thread. nationalreview.com/2021/08/explai…
Most of this essay is fair, but there are some obvious misreadings. For example, I'm faulted for taking a hatchet to Founding-era federalism (e.g., Madison in Federalist No. 45), but my underlying article expressly raises possibility that Bill of Rights "incorporation" was wrong.
Also, a leitmotif in this essay, as with other CGO criticisms, is a rudimentary misunderstanding of what the "common good" is.

There are some "gotcha" attempts at alleged inconsistencies with respect to deference, modesty, expanding v. narrowing democratic majoritarianism, etc.
Read 10 tweets
18 Aug
"China outflanking US in the wake of Biden’s Afghan debacle.”

My piece in tomorrow’s @nypost. nypost.com/2021/08/17/chi…
@nypost Great-power competition is back—just when America happens to be an overstretched, and now-humiliated, empire.

Xi Jinping and his CCP henchmen saw an opportunity to add salt to the wounds of the reeling American tiger—and they acted upon it.

My latest. nypost.com/2021/08/17/chi…
The importance of the current geopolitical moment can’t be overstated. China senses a weak rival.

Secure the national interest, bolster longtime allies, and stop exporting effete Western liberalism: How hard is that for our failed ruling class to grasp? nypost.com/2021/08/17/chi…
Read 4 tweets
19 Jul
Thanks so much to my friend @JennaEllisEsq for having me on @RealAmVoice tonight to discuss conservatism versus libertarianism and what I mean when I propose a jurisprudence of "common good originalism."

Part 1. americasvoice.news/video/zRtbyndQ…
Read 4 tweets
11 Jun
A brief thread.

I've been baffled by a lot of @DavidAFrench's writings on efforts to combat critical race theory, but perhaps never more so than here. frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-conserva…
It has *long* been conservative orthodoxy that states possess near-plenary power over their curricula. Many on the Right have supported abolishing the Department of Education for decades on precisely these grounds. It's a federalism argument right out of Madison in Federalist 45.
What is the issue here? If blue states like California can mandate ethnic studies in their curricula (aside: have "principled" right-liberals objected to that on proceduralist grounds?), then how can red states not ban racially discriminatory pedagogy that's anathema to Title VI?
Read 8 tweets
23 Mar
"The Peace Process That Never Was.”

My latest long-form essay and @tabletmag debut is a look back at the history of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process”—and how the Trump and Biden administrations fit into it. tabletmag.com/sections/israe…
@tabletmag For decades, Washington’s bipartisan "peace process" professional class pushed the same tired tactics to achieve Middle East peace. They failed. Trump changed the game. Biden’s legacy will partially depend on not messing it up.

My @tabletmag debut. tabletmag.com/sections/israe…
@tabletmag Decades-long Palestinian intransigence makes a lot more sense when you consider what Arafat said in 1974: “We shall never stop until we can go back home and Israel is destroyed. The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel.”

My @tabletmag debut essay. tabletmag.com/sections/israe…
Read 4 tweets

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