KNOWLEDGE != POWER….Robert Kagan says it’s OK — maybe even better! — for national politicians to lack experience or knowledge of foreign policy. Matt Yglesias thinks he’s expressing his honest opinion:
Kagan, like most neoconservatives, thinks that in-depth knowledge of foreign countries and the politics and culture of foreign societies isn’t helpful in thinking about foreign policy questions. Similarly, they believe that in-depth knowledge of theoretical and empirical work in the field of international relations isn’t helpful. Indeed, they think that this kind of in-depth knowledge is actually harmful. They prefer the judgment of people who have little knowledge of the outside world but do possess a degree of gut-level nationalism.
Sure. Conservatives never trusted either Nixon or Bush 41 on foreign policy, even though both of them were knowledgable and sophisticated students of foreign affairs. They thought that knowledge slowed them down and made them wimps, always worrying about what world opinion might think. Conversely, they loved Reagan and Bush 43, both of whom had a couple of basic instincts about foreign affairs and not much else.
So John McCain? He’s great! And Sarah Palin? Even greater! You, elitist that you are, may think that knowledge is power, but that’s decidedly not the position of most modern Republicans.
