This morning NBC News' Sam Thielman called out the 2020 Democratic candidates for their lack of concept regarding the potential for war with Iran. And he's right. If any Democrat unseats Donald Trump, he or she will - at best - inherit an unstable, politically contentious situation in the Middle East (like any incoming American president). At worst he or she will inherit a war with Iran that may or may not take place on Iraqi soil, and may or may not involve bloodshed even on American soil.
The reluctant statements from the candidates, as Thielman points out, criticize Trump for his unilateral action and his choice not to inform Congress before authorizing the strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. This is legitimate of course, but unfortunately there is no evidence their opinions (or even perhaps their knowledge) extends to broader military and foreign policy implications.
"Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who have been widely seen in the Democratic establishment as running unserious vanity campaigns, were firmer in their denunciations, which ought to embarrass the more seasoned candidates but probably won't."
This is a major problem. For one thing, it reconfirms the perception conservatives/Republicans are the party of military force as much as liberals and Democrats are the party of social justice.
But it more directly ties to my overall concept and the purpose of my political writings.
Because liberals and Democrats do not have well-defined party values, individual candidates hyper-focus on policy proposals tied to their personal values (otherwise known as their "platform"). A five minute clip from any primary debate this season will tell you that. And as I wrote last year putting policy proposals before party values is a backwards approach, very much like putting the cart before the horse, because policy must be informed by the values. Since Dems don't have a handle on values and the wide knowledge net it can cast, they don't have much outside their proposals to talk about. So because Iran isn't healthcare or billionaires, their response is feeble.
Foreign policy isn't going away and neither is the situation in the Middle East, even if somehow it doesn't get worse. Whomever makes it to the general election debate stage will not be debating a politician because Trump isn't one. But they will be debating someone who now has White House experience and a fake record to talk about. The top candidates would do well to recruit foreign policy and military experts to their campaigns immediately, and get themselves educated.
Don't wait.