Flying Pride flags at U.S. embassies abroad is a counterproductive, divisive practice which privileges domestic constituencies over national interests.
It’s June, which means that Pride Month is upon us. If you haven’t noticed the public virtue-signaling yet – whether it’s from woke corporations, police departments, or even sports teams – I’d suggest you get your eyes checked. Rainbows abound, as do the increasingly militant demands and exaggerated claims of LGBT activists across the country. Conservatives have pushed back against these progressive aims, with varying degrees of intensity and success. In short, the month of June has become a full-on culture war. Still, all of this domestic cultural strife is par for the course, although it has ramped up in intensity as of late. What is truly disturbing, however, is how this divisive cultural progressivism has infected our foreign policy.
“Politics stops at the water’s edge” is an old, idealistic adage that has more often than not been ignored throughout American history. Politicians of all stripes tend to use American presence abroad – in peace and war – to elevate their domestic policies and ideas. For instance, the 1790s Quasi-War against France had as much to do with internal arguments between factions headed by Jefferson and Adams as it did international relations. Presidents past and present have harshly critiqued the foreign policy of their predecessors, with some going so far as to criticize America itself abroad – see President Obama’s remarks during his early time in office, for example. Clearly, this is not a new phenomenon.
What is far less common, and thus more concerning, is the export of controversial cultural ideologies from the sphere of domestic debates to that of global affairs. And that brings us back to Pride Month.
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