Word: moynihan
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...SENATOR Moynihan does not just relate intrigues in this, his record of his controversial stint as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He launches a rhetorical broadside. It is the same argument he made in the 1975 Commentary article, "The U.S. in Opposition," that vaulted him into the U.N. post; and he is writing here, not just to defend his performance at the U.N., but to reassert the principles upon which it was based. His appeal, then and now, is for a tough-minded confrontation--sleeves up, American style--between American liberalism, a force Moynihan sees as more and more...
There are several fundamental assumptions upon which Moynihan bases his rallying cry. The first is theoretical. It is that "ideology" plays just as pivotal a role in shaping political phenomena in modern international politics as economic relations or "national interest," perhaps a greater one. "Minds matter," as Moynihan puts it. "Up to a point, men choose what will motivate them and what they will recognize as motivating them." The second is that the American liberal establishment--guilt-ridden over Vietnam, frustrated by the failures of the Great Society--has lost the nerve to engage in this global battle of values...
...side, Moynihan contends, a certain mindset has gained sway since the Second World War that bears responsibility for our loss of ground. It has involved the elevation of what he defines as "high politics"--arms and strategy--and the demotion of "low politics"--questions of political and cultural values and institutions. "A kind of male/female principle took hold," he argues...
...Moynihan explains that as U.N. Ambassador, he was attempting to throw down a challenge to the liberal establishment (he never defines what that now means for him) to take low politics seriously--and to the Third World to recognize liberalism's capacity to fight back. In Moynihan's view, it was necessary to denounce each assault on democracy, no matter how indirect or symbolic, for implicit in each assault on our system was a campaign to extinguish democracy as an idea...
There is an irony here, though, that provides the key to Moynihan's view of world politics. Moynihan continues to use the language of "containment," while even condemning its narrow militarist focus. It is the vocabulary of the Cold War warmed up again: totalitarianism is "advancing," the liberal elites are shrinking from "retaliation," the West has begun to sink into "irreversible patterns of appeasement." This is not to detract from the importance of Moynihan's initial premise: ideology has come to assume a higher profile in international relations, and the Soviets and the Chinese have certainly been better at addressing...