Talk about swimming upstream.
Last week, an impressive group of centrist Democratic foreign policy thinkers released a thoughtful document urging the party to adopt a "progressive internationalism" built around a strong defense, free trade and American leadership through international alliances "to shape a world in which the values of liberal democracy increasingly hold sway."
As a long-term compass, the manifesto — "Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy" — offers Democrats much sound guidance.
Signed by prominent party thinkers like Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, and Iraq expert Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution, the paper updates for a new century the vision advanced by Democratic presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. In that tradition, the authors envision an America that expands its own security by working with allies to encourage the spread of trade and freedom around the globe — but defends its interests with force when threatened.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outlook3nov03,1,4794860.column?coll=la-headlines-nation-manual