Thursday, January 26, 2012

Professor Gingrich

Daniel Larison, who some mornings can't quite understand why he's a Republican until he's had his first cup of coffee, considers Newt Gingrich's grasp of American history:
[Quoting: Gingrich] vowed to keep Iranian bases out of the region [i.e., Venezuela], averting the potential “first overt violation of the Monroe Doctrine since the 1820s.”
The foreign policy ideas are bad enough, but Gingrich couldn’t resist making what sounded like a learned historical reference that was complete nonsense. There were already some perceived violations of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th century, including the French invasion of Mexico, and the Venezuelan boundary dispute of 1895-96.
Yes, invading an American country and installing a puppet emperor might strike some dispassionate minds as an "overt violation of the Monroe Doctrine."

2 comments:

  1. Too many people in politics take advantage of the lack of general knowledge of American history. As far as American diplomatic history the average US citizen more than likely knows more about the dark side of the moon. JL

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  2. Yeah, they vaguely remember that "the Monroe Doctrine" was on a test in 11th grade, and look! this guy knows all about it!

    Like they say: Gingrich is a stupid person's idea of what a smart person sounds like.

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