Bush's Isolationism Boogeyman

When I watched Bush give his State of the Union address, and he warned America about the isolationists who represent "retreat," it was clear what he was doing. He wants to paint all of his opposition the terms of surrender. Bush is the Minister of Truth, creating out of whole cloth, a "statement of fact" that is simply a lie. He then feeds it to the masses with the intended effect of debasing and discrediting any opposing viewpoints.

Andrew J. Bacevich explains it well in the Los Angeles Times:

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush worked himself into a lather about the dangers of "retreating within our borders." His speech bulged with ominous references to ostensibly resurgent isolationists hankering to "tie our hands" and leave "an assaulted world to fend for itself." Turning inward, the president cautioned, would provide "false comfort" because isolationism inevitably "ends in danger and decline."

But who exactly are these isolationists eager to pull up the drawbridges? What party do they control? What influential journals of opinion do they publish? Who are their leaders? Which foundations bankroll this isolationist cause? The president provided no such details, and for good reason: They do not exist.

Indeed, in present-day American politics, isolationism does not exist. It is a fiction, a fabrication and a smear imported from another era. Isolationism survives in contemporary American political discourse because it retains utility as a cheap device employed to impose discipline. Think of it as akin to red-baiting -- conjuring up bogus fears to enforce conformity in the realm of foreign policy. In that regard, the beleaguered Bush, his standing in public opinion polls tumbling, is by no means the first president to sound the alarm about supposed isolationists subverting American statecraft.