In the last 24 hours, I’ve been interviewed by a journalist from Lebanon and asked to speak to a British group coming to Georgia in November, along with two groups of Germans arriving in Atlanta later this month.
They’re all coming to see the races for governor and U.S. Senate unfold and to understand which issues are driving Georgia voters’ decisions.
But for all of the fascination with Georgia politics from overseas, there has been almost no talk about foreign policy in Georgia politics this year, particularly in the race between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, the GOP nominee.
The press gets part of the blame for this, myself included. The Senate contest has been so subsumed by the accusations about Herschel Walker’s personal life that questions about first-strike nuclear capability don’t come up as much as you’d expect.
Voters bear some of the responsibility for the America-only feel of this year’s races, too. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently asked readers for issues they’d like candidates to address. Of 1,135 responses, not one mentioned foreign policy or global affairs. Ukraine never came up either. The closest to foreign policy any responses got were questions about strengthening the Southern border with Mexico, which 88 readers listed as one of their top three concerns.
As for the candidates themselves, foreign policy occasionally comes up on the campaign trail, but usually with generalities and buzz words, and always after domestic issues like inflation, gas prices, health care, and abortion.
Herschel Walker uses Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” catchphrase in nearly every stump speech he gives.
“I heard one great president said, ‘Have peace through strength,’ and we know peace is through strength,” Walker said in Carrollton this week. “But the problem is we’ve given up our strength, and sooner or later we’re gonna have no peace.”
When he isn’t talking about “peace through strength.” Walker is talking about inflation, crime, the Southern border, and “keeping men out of women’s sports.”
Warnock spends nearly the whole of his stump speech going through the laws that have been signed since he’s been in the Senate, highlighting the ones that he says do the most to help Georgians, such as the law Congress passed to cap the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
A semiconductor bill he talks up will strengthen American manufacturing over foreign-made goods, while his focus on military issues is usually on the well-being of service members and veterans.
Some audiences get more detail than others. Warnock recently told a group of Korean seniors that he supports the Korean War Divided Families Reunification Act, which calls for assistance in reuniting Korean Americans with family members in North Korea. “What could be more important than reuniting families?” he asked.
A reporter for the Jewish Times noticed he never mentioned Israel at a Rosh Hashanah event in Atlanta this week. Asked about the omission later, Warnock said his record on Israel since joining the Senate speaks for itself.
Whichever man wins the Senate race this year will go to Washington in January with the United States facing some of the most precarious foreign policy issues in decades.
The first among them has to be what President Joe Biden blabbed about to New York donors last week, when he talked about what he sees as the greatest chance of nuclear war in 70 years because of the crisis in Ukraine.
“First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use (of a) nuclear weapon if, in fact, things continue down the path they are going,” Biden said in his remarks, according to the White House pool report.
He added: “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
When Vladimir Putin talks about using nuclear weapons, as he did recently, “He’s not joking,” Biden said.
Congress will have to decide, in Ukraine and around the globe, what the appropriate role is for the United States in the future. Is it continuing to arm allies? Send weapons? Return fire, if Putin uses nukes?
Should NATO allow Finland and Sweden into the military alliance? That would expand the footprint that the United States would be obligated to help defend if Russia attacks.
A similar tinderbox seems to be waiting between China and Taiwan, which the United States has also committed to defending. And Israel and the Middle East.
A national uprising seems to be brewing in Iran, while a national crackdown seems to be happening in China. What should the American response be?
More potential problems await with Saudi Arabia, where the Kingdom indicated it plans to cut the production of oil and hike prices, which is a recipe for more American inflation.
And while terrorism has fallen off the front pages of American papers, terrorist plots against the United States haven’t ended by a long shot.
While members of Congress have voted to fund American activities overseas, like aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia, senators alone share the responsibility of taking the United States to war.
In Biden’s own words, we haven’t been this close to war with Russia since the Kennedy administration. Who do you trust to make the right call?
It’s all part of the job our leaders take on when they get to Washington. This year, it’s barely been part of the job interview.
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