Here’s a stunning and impressive speech from a U.S. senator. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it despite the criticisms I anticipate for awarding it attention.
It’s a stunning speech because it’s full of hope — maybe even Hope — for an America deep in the doldrums now of buyer’s remorse over the dumb, accidental choice of a president so lost in self-importance and a senior fog.
It’s impressive because it’s crammed with common sense. It’s not common nowadays. And – wait for it – new ideas.
Is that even possible when the stale politics of both parties today are so profoundly mired in the recurring recriminatory rhetoric of “Yes-you-did-No-I-didn’t-And-anyway-you-did-too”?
Of course, for a variety of disappointing and predictable reasons, nothing will come of these fresh ideas and hope – for now. It is worth reading about and thinking about. These ideas, and the man I think will make a difference on the public stage in the future far beyond his native state.
Ben Sasse was the keynote speaker. He is a former law professor at 50 and is currently serving his second term in Nebraska as senator. He’s an interesting guy, not one of the standard suits who walk the Capitol halls like robots with substance-free, programmed comments targeting select audiences.
Donald Trump’s critics have been consistent in their criticism of Sasse. In the second impeachment trial as a matter of “conscience,” the Nebraskan even voted with six other GOP senators to convict the 45th president. But apparently, Nebraskans agree or don’t mind all that much.
Sasse won just under 63 per cent of the vote for 2020. That’s four more points than Trump drew in a conservative Republican state. Willie Mays, who hasn’t voted in a Democrat president since Willie Mays was elected in 1964. A record-breaking $105,000 contract was awarded to Sasse and a small British singer group achieved its first No. 1 U.S. hit (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”). Sasse still has a high approval rating as of May 2022.
But let us return to the Reagan Library speech. Sasse had many good things to say, full of hope, if you can imagine such a thing during Joe Biden’s ongoing reign of error. You can read it here, or see the video below.
What struck me as intriguing was Sasse’s suggestion that the United States out of its own self-interest lead the assembly of a NATO of the Pacific. That would be an alliance of like-minded open societies against the looming military menace of Communist China, which will not go away just because it’s wishfully ignored.
It is believed that the different Asian countries can only work together to confront Beijing’s massive economic and military threat and not be subsumed by each other. The Pacific currently has a few scattered alliances and bilateral agreements, but not on the same scale as NATO.
China doesn’t wait. It just signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands with hundreds of millions in “aid” and a future military base across a major Pacific trade route.
NATO was created in 1949 by the U.S. under its leadership. This came out of World War II Europe’s ashes where Adolf Hitler picked individual nations to conquer for his Third Reich.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization now has 30 members with Sweden and Finland in line after abandoning their historic neutrality in the face of Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine.
Relying on Article 5 (an attack against one member is an attack against all) as a deterrent, NATO for decades faced down the Soviet Union’s expansionist Warsaw Pact and won the Cold War. Only one time Article 5 was used after 9/11 was to help the U.S. in Afghanistan.
Ukraine is not an NATO member. In fact, Vladimir Putin sees its proposed membership right on Russia’s southern border as a major threat to his dream of constructing some kind of greater Russia as his legacy.
Ukraine is massively outgunned and outmanned but has stymied Putin’s plan for a quick conquest to install a puppet regime. Kyiv’s forces are fighting for the country’s very existence.
They’ve been strengthened through an increasing flood of ammo, heavy weapons, and shared intelligence from NATO countries, who know that members like Poland or the Baltic states would be next on Putin’s conquest shopping list.
“It’s been a long time since this country did something big and hard together,” Sasse told a Reagan Library audience the other night.
He said:
We need allies to get back on the offensive against the CCP, and those allies need US leadership…As Chairman Xi looks to expand his sphere of influence, we need a new military alliance centered far out into the Pacific. This is our main foreign policy work…
Let’s arm the Taiwanese military to the teeth. Let’s amend the Taiwan Relations Act directly to make our security guarantee explicit. No more strategic ambiguity.
Let’s pair military partnerships with economic partnerships and end the nonsense anti-trade policies of the last two administrations. Pacific NATO must be free to trade. We win when we compete in trade. Trade is a win/win situation.
No one can outthink, outhustle, or outwork the American people. Our American order has seen us through the Cold War.
We can build a new American order that will see us through the coming conflict with the Beijing tyrant – that’s seeking to export his dehumanizing surveillance-state autocracy and the related technologies.
The idea of the United States actually providing international leadership once again to protect its own security offshore with others is exciting to imagine in stark contrast to the depressing drift of Joe Biden’s policies toward China.
We don’t know if Hunter Biden has any financial assets in China that he made in 2013, after he flew there on the vice presidential plane.
How’s that for strategic competition?
There’s much more of refreshing interest in this Reagan Library speech. You should read it with an open eye and keep your eyes on the future. Please let me know what you thought in the comments.
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