Rep. Paul Ryan: America Exceptional at Home and Abroad

Marion Smith / June 07, 2011

Paul Ryan (R-WI), the champion of necessary but unpopular fiscal reform, spoke this month about America’s exceptional political ideas and how they should be reflected in our foreign policy. In so doing he rejected isolationism and reinforced the Founders’ commitment to making America an indispensable nation for the cause of freedom, by maintaining American independence abroad.

“America is an idea,” he said. “And it was the first nation founded as such. The idea is rather simple. Our rights come to us from God and nature. They occur naturally, before government.” For Ryan, this understanding has necessary implications for U.S. foreign policy, but must be guided by prudence:

Now, if you believe these rights are universal human rights, then that clearly forms the basis of your views on foreign policy. It leads you to reject moral relativism. It causes you to recoil at the idea of persistent moral indifference toward any nation that stifles and denies liberty, no matter how friendly and accommodating its rulers are to American interests. (more…)