I did not expect the Trump administration’s first major struggle to focus on the United States’ Agency for International Development. But in the distant concern, it has perfect meaning, because USAID sits in a place where the traditional conservative critic of government spending meets the popular critic of the theory of the professional class: these are two battles for a price.
In the traditional right -wing argument, the key problem with the government is that its expenses suffer from waste, fraud and abuse. Foreign aid is especially considered useless because the money does not return to US taxpayers, and especially when it flows into the countries run by corruption governments, it becomes abusive when They want to send the US dollar to pursue themselves.
In the populist argument, the key problem with the government is that it has been caught by ideological progressives, for which even neutral sound goals cover the reasons for pursuing social liberalism and waking up the reasons for awakening. Do Since most of the USAID’s work is a clear component of the cultural component, which defends US values ​​and funding Ideas -powered businesses, it is a particularly firm target for such criticism.
Popular criticism is not unique for Trump’s tenure: from the Cold War to the war on terror, many conservatives are suspected of liberal humanitarians and good people from the State Department. But since Obama’s era, the strength and influence of criticism has increased rapidly, as a cultural revolution has indeed spread through the foundations and gentlemen and universities that are connected to the work of government institutions. Has
This is something that the Liberals need to express regret over the right to the right against foreign aid: specific examples of the theoretical mission crawling that keep highlighting Elon Musk and different Republicans, different DEIs and l GBTQ -related grants, an example of a common change, is an example of almost every change of everyone. Over the past decade, experienced, where organizations that had a neutral and minor liberal inclination became more deliberately, more deliberately, more deliberately left. (It certainly spanned to such areas Scientific grantingAnother rotating area of ​​conflict.)
And this is a special problem for an organization like USAID that is believed to be the United States worldwide. If you start to understand that American values ​​are just progressive values, you should not be surprised when the conservative mission loses. If you try to enforce the revolution, don’t be surprised when you get thermodor.
Problem for the winner thermodores Is doubled. The most immediately. It is only for populists to imagine that government agencies were not only affected by progressive ideas, but in fact the invention of Woky, and that by following the amount of USAID through different flu charts, you As such, the entire liberal professional class can be eliminated. (This is one of the ideas that can raise itself.)
This is a mistake, and it is linked to a deep slippery that you see in the right-wing conversation-criticizing how progressively has brought US influence operations to the idea that the world for the US government It is bad to try to impress in every way. .
In fact, the criticism of a limited government on foreign aid, while the failures of some programs are correct, was generally controlled. The amount we spend on humanitarian efforts is very few, which is considered a major field of budget waste, and its benefits certainly justify the dollar data.
Some of these benefits are just prizes of virtue. Vice President JD Venus recently gave rise to an online argument by talking about “Ordo Affairs”, the rating of responsibilities under which we need to take care of our communities first and with immediate duties. More remote needs are not preferred. This is a severe criticism of some recent forms of liberal policy -making – for example, controlling suspicious asylum contenders to control the social service network for US citizens. But in the context of about $ 7 trillion budget, spending tens of billions on foreign aid, in fact, how should the Ardo Affairs of a rich superpower work.
Then there are strategic benefits. As long as the United States remains a global power with a royal influence, we should wish to be more welfare than our Chinese and Russian rivals. When these charitable works get involved in progressive ideological demands, this welfare is astray. But prevention of self -charitable, malaria net and HIV, is still a wise investment.
Officially this is the status of the Trump administration, which is Promise Organizing its foreign aid work to focus on humanity. But within the right there is a division whether the target of the Trumpyan foreign policy is to make the US Empire the right size, using the ban and balance to maintain a dominant position in a multi -faceted world, or us of North America Should return to some limits. , Not exactly loneliness, but very much in i’tikaaf.
I think the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is now the acting head of USAID, is from the first camp, which is in the right size rather than the retreat. But now what she does with the humanitarian efforts of the United States is a good test of whether the right size will be Trump’s strategy, or Maga can prefer to expire our imperium.
