Note: This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Wednesday, August 3rd. You can also hear the audio below.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is currently* in Taiwan, which pretty well pokes a stick in the eye of the CCP.
I’m okay with that, but it got me to thinking about Teddy Roosevelt. Our 26th President was many things – politician, conservationist, historian, writer. One of the more salient takeaways from his presidency was the “Big Stick Diplomacy” that he employed, which he reportedly described as “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.” More commonly, we hear this distilled as “Walk (or speak) softly and carry a big stick.”
This approach requires that you have the may (i.e. the military power) to support your position. If potential foes know that you will walk the walk and not just talk the talk, they’re far more likely to respect you and not test you.
Other key elements include acting honestly, not bluffing and striking only when you are ready to strike hard. Finally, being open to allowing your adversary to win in defeat. All of this makes sense.
It seems to work for me anyway. Unfortunately, for the Biden Administration, “Walk softly and carry a big stick” has been pretzel-twisted into “Shuffle aimlessly, and toss the stick in the sociological woodchipper, lest it offend or frighten someone.”
*The episode was taped on Tuesday August 2, 2012. Since that time, Speaker left Taiwan.
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