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What does Obama gain by avoiding the Dalai Lama?
John Pomfret's front page article in the Washington Post on the Obama administration's arm twisting of the Dalai Lama is quite astounding.
It is further reason to doubt that Obama's "strategic reassurance" policy is anything but a policy of appeasing the PRC. How far will this lead? Successive U.S. administrations have balanced the desire to integrate China into the international political order with concerns over China's intentions as it continues to gain in power. This is the historic challenge that all established powers face in dealing with rising powers. No matter what Obama thinks, America cannot just avoid basic dilemmas in international politics with which all great powers have had to grapple.
The other challenge, since China is a dictatorship and the United States is a highly ideological country (in the most basic sense that we are a people tied together by a set of ideas we believe to be universal), has always been how to engage China without abandoning core democratic principles. Obama, like his Secretary of State before him, has made great strides in undoing that balance. Why? What exactly will he get from abandoning a long-term U.S. policy of publicly supporting the Dali Lama?
"Sources" claim that they hoped to gain cooperation from the Chinese on North Korean disarmament and the attempt to halt Iran's nuclear weapons drive. Another "source" claimed Obama is not "interested in symbolism" or "photo ops" that have not worked in the past.
These administration sources have now laid out the criteria against which Obama should be judged. Let's look for "deliverables" out of Obama's November China trip. We certainly have tried many times before to get the Chinese to be more proactive in disarming North Korea and in helping to resist Iran's destabilizing behavior. So let's see if the Obama administration's capitulation on the Dalai Lama now secures real Chinese moves against these countries which China so heavily subsidizes. It would be nice to get some concessions first before making concessions ourselves. Have the Chinese secretly agreed to squeeze the North Koreans or Iranians? Have we told Beijing we are going ahead with the sale of F-16s to Taiwan? I doubt it.
Then let's watch closely to see if the move away from "symbolism" (ironic as that is, given Obama's belief that his very existence as president is in and of itself changing the world) with respect to Tibet actually secures Tibetans' basic rights of religious freedom and cultural autonomy.
Count me as skeptical. Without many other levers of statecraft to affect Chinese behavior in Tibet, our "symbolic" high level meetings with the Dalai Lama are important morale boosters for Tibetans and human rights activists throughout China. And, these meetings provide some restraint over a China willing to go to extreme levels of brutality in repressing Tibetan rights.
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Gratuitous
A gratuitous remark.
I hope this doesn't portend a long stream of future posts tainted by reflexive hostility to the current administration.
America idealistic?
"since China is a dictatorship and the United States is a highly ideological country"
Except when we were ethnically cleansing the Native Americans during the equivalent period of our history, right?
Seriously though, I think you paint both countries in an all too simplistic light.
Does Daniel Blumenthal believe his ideologies?
For example, Mr B writes: . . . China is a dictatorship and the United States is a highly ideological country (in the most basic sense that we are a people tied together by a set of ideas we believe to be universal)
So, we are "one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all" are we? From what I have seen, we are one country divided into two significant politico-economic classes: the corporate-elite that pay for election campaigns and send lobbies to our largely corrupted Congress and the regulatory agencies and the rest of us who vote for two parties whose true constituents are the corporate-elite. The US is a dictatorship, too, maybe a kindlier, gentler one (in the homeland).
Mr B asks, "What exactly will he (Pres. Obama) get from abandoning a long-term U.S. policy of publicly supporting the Dali Lama?"
Our President has a great respect for power. He has not opposed with vigor any powerful interest since he became president, just as he did not as a US Senator or as an Illinois legislator. China is very powerful. It loans us the dollars to light the Capitol and pay the salaries of Congress. China helps pays our obligations while we fight stupid wars. One does not put a finger in the eye of one's creditor. Yes, we buy their consumer goods, but they will find other customers in time, even Chinese customers!
Mr B writes, "how to engage China without abandoning core democratic principles."
He must mean OUR core democratic principles. But what are they? Habeus Corpus? Abiding by the Geneva conventions and our own laws? From US foreign policy since 1945, I don't think we have any core democratic principles. At home, 1 out of 100 Americans, more than 2 million people are in prison mostly for non-violent crimes. This is the nature of a democracy with core principles?
Mr B sees "China willing to go to extreme levels of brutality in repressing Tibetan rights." Does he mean the levels of brutality such as this country exerted in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? Does he mean the brutality Eisenhower fostered in installing the Shah in Iran over the democratically elected Mossadegh government? Or perhaps the brutality unleashed when Nixon instigated the overthrow of Salvatore Allende in Chile? How about the brutality of what we have done since Bush I to Iraq and are now doing in Af-Pak?
How do you think China sees this behavior by the US? I think they consider us murderous hypocrites!
I don't know about this. The
I don't know about this. The Dalai Lama is a separatist calling for about a quarter of China's territory with only something like 1/200th of its population. According to reason, our support for him is ludicrous. We just do it to piss them off and destabilize them. It's like if we had left the navtive americans with the entire great plains. Don't feign outrage.
What have we got to lose?
"What exactly will he get from abandoning a long-term U.S. policy of publicly supporting the Dali Lama?"
Let's reverse that. What has a long term policy of publicly supporting the Dali Lama (when he wasn't working for the CIA) done for the US or Tibet? Zilch?
They used to tell us that Chinese placed a lot of weight on maintaining "face". Trying to embarass someone just before negotiations doesn't sound like a productive strategy in any case.
I'm a bit more patient than Blumenthal. It's been 50 years since the failed revolt led the Dali Lama to flee Tibet. Let's give Obama a couple of years to get results from China. If China doesn't respond by then, go ahead and build the Dali Lama a stupa on the White House Lawn/ ;-)
Obama stands to gain respect...
The Dalai Lama is a non-issue. Tibet, Macau, Taiwan, HongKong...these are all internal issues for China.
There were enough "real" issues to deal with regarding the former soviet union that no sitting president needed to meet with Wrangel, surviving Romanovs, or other prominent figures from the Russian diaspora to exert "percieved" pressure on the soviet regime.
China today, after celebrating 60 years of the PRC is a vastly different country than in 1959 and in no way shape or form does it follow the soviet style of communism nor the capitalist driven "democracy" of countries like the USA or Japan. People like Chuck Schumer who wish to unsettle the Chinese leadership through insignificant means will lead only to adversarial relationships instead of constructive partnership and in the end hurt business and the interdependent economies of both countries.
Let the Dalai Lama keep his culture and spirit alive until a day arrives when he can reconcile with the modern day PRC (not a dictatorship, nor the same regime he fled as a young boy)and I am sure he will be welcomed back to greater China to share their common cultural history with the Chinese citizens of the Tibet region. Until that day, let the likes of Richard Gere take the teary eyed photo ops and commiserate over the PRC government extending preferential treatment to the ethnic minorities, pouring funds into their infrastructure, and improving the living conditions of those the Dalai Lama left behind.
Putting up roadblocks to communication and cooperation between the USA and PRC will lengthen the process and weaken the US position. Do not just allow, but encourage further dialog as well as business relationships vital to the further development of the PRC. Dollars, and inextricable support for economic and technological growth create dependencies that cannot be ignored. Those are stronger "hooks" or "leverage" to effecting change than any bleeding heart "hug-fest" with an insignificant guy in robes.
Are human rights still an issue, YES!
But there are smarter, more constructive ways to "help" the PRC improve it's track record. Standing on your soap box demanding change "now" or we won't talk to you, is a ludicrous policy in anyone's foreign policy handbook.
The Tibetan people enjoy the same basic rights, religious and cultural autonomy as the people of Shanghai and Beijing. They can wear robes, or a Nike T-shirt, they can beg for a bowl of rice in exchange for a blessing or go to McDonalds while chanting mantras or singing god bless america. They do not have the right to secede from the union. To chastise the government of the PRC for not allowing this is the same as a rebuke of Abraham Lincoln.
As for Taiwan, what if Robert E. Lee had retreated from Gettysburg and taken the southern refugees to the Florida keys? What would you say to an outside power disputing your sovereignty and remaining critical in the face of improved relations on the road to reconciliation? I know I would tell them to "butt out".
What if the Eskimos wanted to reunite with Russia to escape the repression they face at the hands of the US?
I applaud this move by the Obama administration, and hope to count them to the enlightened crowd and not the bleeding hearts who still refer to Chechen terrorists as "freedom fighters" (the same freedom fighters standing shoulder to shoulder with Osama in Afghanistan).
Hopefully they recognize the seperatists and terrorists for what they are, and not lump them into the same category as those with legitimate human rights violations. Only then can they work constructively with China to help them eliminate the real cause and mechanism for denying the human rights of some Chinese citizens. (Which are not edicts handed down from the people's national congress in Beijing, but structural, social, and regulatory deficiencies in the network of regional and local governments).
God bless America, and long live Obama...it's wise and respected benevolent dictator.
Not meeting with the Dalai
Not meeting with the Dalai Lama costs the United States absolutely nothing. I'm not arrogant enough to believe that it will solve our Chinese problems on its own, nor do I think that we should simply ignore him. But please, leave moralism out of the debate.
The Lama dissed Obama
When the Dalai Lama was recently at MIT he said that a good leader the people of the world should look up to is…George W. Bush. Maybe that’s got something to do with the snub.
Blog's idea poorly conceived
A blog whose contributors are the US policy-making appointees of previous administrations? In other words, a blog written by those who authored or were associated with the past US foreign policy record of catastrophic failures. Might just as well go to a mental institution for opinions on how to lead the good life!
Wrong Signal?
Past meetings between the Dalai Lama and the U.S President have always been informal and social rather than goal oriented. These meetings typified the meetings of the Leader of the Free World and a Noble Peace Laureate who strives to make a global contribution.
I would have personally loved to sip my coffee while paging through the weekend paper that the photo of a smiling Obama holding hands with a laughing Dalai Lama.
I am sure Obama would enjoy such a meeting as well.
These little pleasures are valuable part of our liberty and we ought to be able to pursue them within this sovereign Nation without caving under the pressure of a Communist Dictator.
If we cannot do that then we are less free.
Freedom postponed for a future gains is freedom lost now.
Obama's action could be construed by the 1.2 billion Chinese and other oppressed people that the Leader of the free World is willing to be in cahoots with the Chinese totalitarian government.
America the free...
Right signal...
The Lama (man of peace or separatist) may strive to spread the peace and wisdom of his religion anywhere he chooses. He can do so in Tibet if he likes. Unfortunately, if he does practice "religion" in Tibet he will have fewer photo-ops and fundraisers.
Not that the Chinese government would hinder him from going to take tea with our President (They could care less if he is not advocating secession). The US government however, might deny him a visa once he is carrying a PRC passport.
As many privately owned companies in China send their employees to work in Albania, Russia, Dubai, etc., there is no restriction for citizens leaving the country. You need to be the equivalent of a lottery winner though to be one of the "chosen people" our state department selects as worthy of an American tourist VISA. It's amazing that for unbiased (freedom loving) criteria applied to VISA applicants by the department of state that the majority are visitors to Las Vegas, Hawaii, and people who can afford to spend money within our borders. Co-workers applying to go to the US for training at the legitimate invitation and expense of the host business or relatives seeking to visit family (staying with them, not in a hotel or with a tour group) often have trouble or are denied on grounds inconsistent with the state departments own handbook.
While the Chinese people do enjoy more personal freedom than do most European citizens, and less regulation than do citizens of the USA, America is still the land of the free and as such we enjoy more freedom of choice. Including who we choose to meet and/or not to meet with. From my perspective that shows the world that we have the cajones to exercise our freedom without bending to the pressures of rural redneck McCarthyesque dogma or the liberal protectionist agenda (a'la Chuck Schumer).
Although you may need to sweeten your morning coffee with an extra lump of sugar rather than a gratuitous photo op, you still maintain the right to burn incense and make a donation to any "religious" group you see fit. Regardless whether that donation funds terrorism or is used to incite insurrection in northern China or not. As long as the department of state does not make public the link, freeze assets, or prohibit contribution (like we try to dictate what companies free people can invest in - forcing many offshore), you can enjoy a clear conscience and cloudy Karma.
Trust me that the 1.3 Billion Chinese are more concerned with finding a job in the city to make the rural to urban transition, or slaving at an unregistered job to earn the capital required to start their own business than Obama's social calendar or your enjoyment of your morning caffeine infusion.
Trust me also when I say you are less "free" than you know, Obama is the president of the USA, and it has been decades since we stopped leading and had to begin bribing and coercing the "free world", and sadly; Virginia, Santa Clause exists only in the mythos of Coca-Cola and Macy's to get mommy and daddy to spend their paychecks to light up your eyes and the electrified aluminum tree they bought in celebration of the capitalist festival of excess that used to be a Christian feast day. But you can believe, Virginia, under our new religion and value system your future is secure. Like the Catholic church of old we will collect our stipend from the McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut (etc. ad nauseam) franchises found on every street corner throughout the "free" as well as "not-so-free" world.
God bless and keep America...
Free China
I agee that, "1.3 Billion Chinese are more concerned with finding a job in the city to make the rural to urban transition, or slaving at an unregistered job to earn the capital required to start their own business than Obama's social calendar", rather than being concerned that objections to the social calendars of the world leaders are frequently broadcast by their jet-black haired, geezer dictators.
However nothing short of a lump of of LSD in my coffee will make me swallow your contention that "the Chinese people do enjoy more personal freedom than do most European citizens, and less regulation than do citizens of the USA".
A free China and an uncolonized Tibet and an independent East Turkey is how things were and that's how it should be.
It is in the interest of the Chinese dictators to present these opressed nations as free and criticize the misteps of the free nations as oppression.
In the vernacular of this communist dictatorship, "splitist," "seperatist," and "terrorist" are four-letter words that they can throw at anybody that they want disapeared.
What a long, strange trip it's been...
In Germany, if I want to have a beer and a smoke I have to go outside the pub. This is law, mandated by the federal government country wide, no smoking no choice. If I want to open a bicycle repair shop, or restaurant, I need in addition to the business license proof that I apprenticed under a "Master" to legally operate my business. I must register with the local police within days of my move and must register my religion with the state, and pay church taxes accordingly (catholic, evangelical, etc.). What do you say we institute registrations (papers please) in the USA? Make life easy and allow uncle Sam to collect your donation to your favorite church, mosque, temple, shrine straight out of your paycheck.
In China, smoke 'em if you got 'em. (Cuban cigar? No problem!) I don't even need a business license to ply a trade. I can go from farmer to forklift driver, restaurateur...in as many months. Personal Choice.
Can you still burn yard waste or trash in your backyard?
You can on the public street here, no EPA or "yard police" will show up with a citation from the township.
Want to study something? Pick a university. My wife just finished a first course of study in traditional Chinese medicine, she has a degree in machinery design engineering already.
Ready to check your sugar bowl yet? Having a bad trip?
I ask my colleagues (mostly young university graduates) ever hear of Bo Yang? Yeah - Taiwanese author imprisoned for his political satire. (In "free" China - Taiwan).
China is free, wrap your mind around that one.
You can forget communism (should be declared a crime against humanity itself), and you can forget your democracy, and the cute little pet names like "red capitalism"...and better start studying nationalism. Nothing better than nationalism to get the left and right together working for the common good. (Question is, whose good?) Global or within your own borders?
What are you saying really?
It is in the interest of the Chinese dictators to present these oppressed nations as free and criticize the missteps of the free nations as oppression.
It is in the interest of the free nations to present these free nations as oppressed and criticize the missteps of the Chinese government as oppression.
Study the Dao, there's two sides to every coin, sword, label...
What can you get, or what can you do that can't be gotten or done in China? Blocked web sites? Yes they are blocked, but any kid can get around them. Express opinion? Everybody has got one. Criticize the government? Why not? I can march into Tianamin square and declare Hu Jintao a blithering idiot. No problem. - Gather a group of people and say "let's storm the people's hall and demand secession of the Tibet autonomous region under threat of violence"...yeah, you're asking for trouble.
What do you really want? A free Tibet? It is free.
Or were you thinking a US outpost or military base might be well positioned there as a friend of the newly installed emperor Dalai? (Now you're really tripping if you think that old caramel is still gonna taste good).
Free China? - Got that.
Uncolonized Tibet? - Even with the new high speed rail I do not see a great influx of colonizers. Heck, even McDonalds, KFC and Burger King are hiring locals there. If you're interested in moving there I can get you a lead on some real estate prices. (With English proficiency you could go from fry cook to store manager in a heartbeat). Hey, live the dream.
Independent East Turkey??? - Got that. We call it Armenia.
You want "the way we were"? In the US the $0.99 store has Babs and Redford on two for one special. (We download that for free here in China, thieving b@$t@rd$ that we are).
But if you get anyone to go for that idea, let me know.
I'd like to see the Russian Czar reinstated, Prussia and the eastern German territories returned to Germany (Koenigsberg in particular) and how about returning our lands and estate that my family lost during the war?
Eastern Ukraine should return to Russia and the west to Poland. If you have the juice to make that happen, I'll even throw western Turkey in as a deal clincher...oh, wait...that's how this whole mess started in the first place. Never mind.
Afterthought...what about Rhodesia? When do we accept the fact that things change, people as a species are worse than most animals, and if we want to effect change maybe we need to begin from where we are now and move forward rather than turn back the clock? This nostalgia thing hasn't worked well for the Palestinians and Jews, and 400 years wasn't long enough for the Irish to figure it out either.
You can call a Chechen a "freedom fighter" if you like, and I prefer to call them terrorists. If you check the identity papers of the sheet wearing scum that bomb apartment buildings, subways, markets and hold schools hostage in Russia the address you see is in Grozny. You're call.
Our government talks big like the knight on a white horse, and plays with labels as it suits their purpose. Freedom fighter/Terrorist, Rebel/Patriot, WMA's/No WMA's...but the truth is that from your armchair taking in whatever enlightened information you do (CNN/Fox, Washington Times/Washington Post) you'll never really know if that bombed out factory was making lipstick or shell casings.
Unless you were there, or know and trust someone who was.
Not a lot of WWII films about the British selling out the Kossacks...and Band of Brothers or Flags of our Fathers never mention American airmen flying over the Alps and cutting their engines to murder women and children working the farm fields in Austria. Happened though.
Think about a nice vacation to China. Come spend your dollars before they devalue even further, and talk to some people in Tibet. Walk the streets, or do what I do...go to any University, prepare an hour long talk and offer to give it as a practice for the English majors. The PSB never censored me, and you get to talk to a lot of great young minds full of questions and ideas. Better way to expand your mind than dropping government sponsored LSD.
God bless, and keep America...
If the pith message of The
If the pith message of The Dao is that there are two sides to every coin then as far as Tibet is concerned there is the bad side and the very bad side.
One may consider the freedom to burn trash on public streets and unrestricted ability to set up shops without a trade license as an enhancement of individual liberty in Tibet I see it as a simple lack of regulation and absence of basic infrastructure.
The fallout from China's irresponsible governance of Tibet was evident during my visit to the Tibetan Capital a few years ago. I saw starving Tibetans knocking their bowls against the window of the restaurant where I stopped for lunch. Lhasa is turning into an unregulated Chinatown where most of the business is Chinese owned. Chinese restaurants and Karaoke bars line the main streets. In Lhasa there are twice as many Chinese as there are Tibetans.
International Aid Agencies say 60 years of Communist occupation has done nothing to replace the traditional farms and trade-economy that they destroyed in 1959. Rural Tibet has some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.
The other side of the coin reveals a nation in virtual lockdown since 1994 when the CCP handed down a policy of cultural and religious repression known as "Grasping With Both Hands". It is to this measure that the Tibetans demonstrated. Subsequently the CCP sent paramilitary forces that shot down hundreds of unarmed demonstrators and many others were dragged from their homes in a door-to-door manhunt.
March 2008 saw the uprising of Uyghur's in East Turkistan who are fighting against discrimination and religious persecution.
Similar to China's attempt to restrict world leaders from meeting the Dalai Lama, a moratorium is there against these leaders meeting the exiled Rebiya Kadeer who champions the cause of the Uyghurs in East Turkistan.
Perhaps the inscrutable message of The Dao alludes to something that goes beyond a coin that has a good and a bad side, or two bad sides.
The Dao may in fact transcend human institutions such as Religions, Nationalism, Communism and all the other isms. Perhaps the Dao urges us to look at and experience the absence of our grand schemes rather than merely point out the other side of one thing.
Yes you are right! I should study The Dao.
Take a look around...
Are there Han in Tibet? Sure.
Go to any flea market in America and you will invariably find a Han family, probably from Fujian or GuanDong province. They are unbelievably shrewd businesspeople and hard working entrepreneurs. What would make a Han Chinese move to XinJian or Tibet? Opportunity maybe.
Half the population in Tibet draw wages (Thank you McDonalds) and per capita income in 2000 was nearly 15,000RMB. (Thank you intrepid Han entrepreneur).
In many major cities in mainland China one can find restaurants operated by Hui Muslims, and in our own downtown market place stalls operated by Tibetan Buddhists sell trinkets and curiosities from their home region. Although many of the Buddhists in China burn incense as more of a habit or superstition out of respect for parents and grandparents. (Product of Westernization)
I also see the starving beggars everywhere in China. Don't worry, after they get the hang of accosting the masses at taxi stands and train stations they'll begin to fatten up. When the local population gets tired of feeding them, they'll borrow someone's kid and go hang out where the foreigners mingle (foreigners are always a soft touch) or turn to selling maps and newspapers.
The infant mortality rate is definitely high. 35.3 in 1000 reported in the year 2000. Thankfully, as a result of cultural and religious repression by the central government, that number is down from 430 in 1000 (1951).
The current infant mortality rate in Calcutta is 48 in 1000. Perhaps after the PRC gets done repressing the Tibetan Buddhists it should set it's sights on the Hindi?
Rural anywhere has lower standards and worse conditions than urban areas (well, except maybe Calcutta which is an urban slum).
There are prisons for those who break the law, and bullets for those who incite violence. Perhaps some of the Muslims and Han who had their shops burned and their lives "destroyed" by the peaceful demonstrators are comforted by that knowledge.
If the Dalai Lama ever finds a kid who does not mind giving up girls, football and video games to follow his footsteps and is successful in wresting Tibet from the yoke of Chinese misery the Tibetan people can go back to the way things were:higher mortality, higher infant mortality, higher illiteracy, lower wages. Just don't think he will be happy you helped him, because the McDonalds, MTV, Nike, Pokemon consumerism will be the new "threat" that aims to destroy Tibetan culture by turning it's Buddhists into the same unbelieving self centric heathens that the younger generations of Han have turned out to be. When your daily bowl of rice depends on someone paying you for the brass plated image of Buddha or blessing you bestow...that just wouldn't do.
Similar to the October 9th comment, there is no East Turkey...it's Armenia and I take it the Turkistan reference is to XinJiang province. One of my colleagues got stuck there an extra day as the authorities had to close the airport to deal with a "peaceful protest". We had to effect start up of some industrial equipment for a new industrial mining facility. Here's hoping it doesn't create too many jobs or improve the region's economy too much lest the "persecuted" Uyghurs lose grounds to complain.
I agree, you would do better to plant your nose in a book by LaoZi rather than inflammatory websites like freetibetnow.orwe'llburnyourhouse.peace
I rather like the idea of flooding the region with Han. It is a very peaceful strategy much preferred over armed invasion. Note to the department of state: continue to deny any and all Han Chinese VISA applicants as they are a real threat to the stability and security of our great nation.
Kudos to Obama, able to bask in the same warm light as the Dalai Lama. You can snub the guy, and still get a membership to the world peace club. Who said affirmative action couldn't work?
Peace to all.
God bless, and keep America...
Hu's Propaganda for Obama
Obama looses more than he gains by not meeting the Dalai Lama. Many Americans who supported his pro-active global policies feel that this time he has gone too far by letting a Communist Dictator dictate to him as to who he may and may not meet on American soil. As far as Hu is concerned The Dalai Lama is a "splittist" -someone who wants to split China.
Upon seeing the negative fall out from his misstep, Obama will turn his focus more on our core values rather than on the virtual world of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.
As far as Tibet is concerned, the issue is not whether the Tibetans (those who are not among the 1.2 Million killed in the genocide) are living longer or more educated (if Communist Indoctrination in Chinese language is education!) now than in 1959. The issue is that the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950 is illegal and that the Chinese should go home.
If China invaded the Vatican, the Propaganda Department of the CCP (actually exists) would be charged to call the Pope a "splitist" (which usually carries the death sentence). Anyone who pointed to the illegality of such an invasion would then be called the "The Pope clique" (carries the death sentence or long prison term). Would Obama then again not meet the Pope at Hu's urging?
Now Hu...er, who is reading or spouting propaganda...?
Figures were quoted from UNESCO...
Legality??? Oh, please...
Leave it to a democrat to ignore facts and continue spouting platitudes...
Note to US Democratic party propaganda department: find synonyms for "Core Values", "Genocide", "Indoctrination", "invasion", "occupation", "illegal", "clique"...the discourse is stale and lacking substance. While you are at it, see if you can nail down what the definition of "is" is...
God bless, and keep America...