In an article in The Hill, Trevor Thrall argues that younger Americans are ready to embrace a different role for the U.S. in international relationships.
Poll after poll shows that Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996, and their younger siblings in Generation Z born 1997 and onward) are ready to ditch the frequent military intervention that has dominated American foreign policy during their lifetimes and instead embrace a foreign policy of restraint.
While older Americans worry that the younger generation may be more “isolationists”, Thrall argues that is not the case.
Among the trends that worry older Americans is the fact younger Americans report lower levels of belief in American exceptionalism and typically express less support for “taking an active part” in world affairs.
A deeper investigation, however, reveals that younger Americans don’t want to retreat from the world, they just want to engage it differently.
Isn’t this the Libertarian message? Isn’t this what Ron Paul, Scott Horton, and the folks at antiwar.com have been trying to tell people for years? The Libertarian position on foreign policy is not isolationists. It is a message that should resonate with a younger generation tired of endless wars and let them know there is another way, or as Scott Horton often states “it doesn’t have to be this way”. Trevor Thrall says Democrats should embrace the “message of restraint” but this is the Libertarian position and has been since the very beginning of the Libertarian movement. It is our message to the world and the younger generation is ready to hear it.
“A policy of nonintervention would make America stronger, wealthier, more influential and a respected beacon of liberty“.
Ron Paul
