Rogue Notions: Democracy is Still a Revolutionary Idea--That's the Problem (Ideas‪)‬

IT WOULD BE WRONG to imagine that while Republicans are driven by their desire to transform those who are not like us politically and culturally, their Democratic opposition holds radically different premises. Both national parties, and even two publications with such supposedly opposing worldviews as National Review and The New Republic, engage in the same Wilsonian rhetoric, and both sides of the political center view foreign countries as places for trying out our progressive ideals. Both use the language of human rights, and both believe that if the U.S. is to be true to itself, it must export its values as a foreign-policy priority. The values that we are urged to export, moreover, are coterminous with how democracy evolved in 20th-century society, with special emphasis on the treatment of women, minorities, and on a certain acquisitive individualism identified with the opening of markets and a mixed economy.