The New Useful Idiots

Eliot's road trip continues but Eric welcomes syndicated columnist, Bulwark Policy Editor, and host of the Beg to Differ Podcast Mona Charen. They discuss Mona's 2003 book Useful Idiots describing the left's Cold War and post-Cold War passion for anti-anti Communism and indulging in apologetics for Communist regimes including the Soviet Union, the PRC, Cuba, and others in search of a utopian socialism that never quite met expectations and ended up excusing some of the world's worst human rights violators. They discuss the honorable tradition of cold war liberal anti-communism embodied by Harry Truman, Hubert Humprey and Henry Jackson and the alt-right's attraction to and apologias for Viktor Orban's Hungary and Vladimir Putin's Russia in pursuit of a critique of contemporary America. They touch on the ongoing Republican debate on foreign policy, the Republican Party's historic tradition of isolationism, the role of Wendell Wilke and Arthur Vandenberg in constructing a Republican internationalism and the prospects for a return to a Reaganaut foreign policy. They talk about the responsibilities of Reagan Republicans to call out the authoritarianism of Trumpism and Trumpists. Finally, Mona gives the speech Joe Biden should give to persuade the American people to continue supporting Ukraine and to give himself a political boost.

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.