"Soft Power" (Not For 'Bagger Kiddies)

[Mr. Shaman]

You Eisenhower-Republicans should really enjoy this!!​

John C. Hulsman
Senior Research Fellow, The Hague Centre For Strategic Studies

(It's well-worth-it, watching this!!)​

"I think that Eisenhower, unlike the guys we have now in both parties, had a strategy, had a basic, fundamental, simple view - five or six things that you lived your life by.

One of them was, you have to live within your means, be you a government, be you a person. And that if you don’t live within your means, yes, you can do that for a while. We can print money for another 10 years and nothing much will happen before the bond markets attack the dollar - I mean, that’s a client thing - 2017, 2016, pick your year, somewhere about there.

You can do that. But in the long run, you’re selling the silver to pay the butcher bill. And that’s a really bad idea. And that all of our strength ultimately is economic strength. I mean, look at World War II, what Eisenhower knew intimately. The fact that we could go from an Army that had 200,000 people to an Army that had seven million people - a 35 time increase - only makes sense if you understand the economic wherewithal that General Marshall understood about the United States.

That’s the notion of our strength. And if we lose that, if we sell the silver to live in a silly way, very quickly we’re not going to be able to do that.

That’s the magic of Eisenhower, why I came back to America to do the Cato event, and what I strongly believe in - and what, by the way, neither party are addressing in a grown-up or a forthright manner."

**​

"Well, I mean, discretionary spending, or earmarks, which we all obsess about. Look. Earmarks annoy the heck out of me, too, that some congressman builds a bridge named after himself, or Murtha names an airport after himself that nobody goes to in Pennsylvania.

But frankly, this is one-half of one percent. It’s 0.5 percent of the federal budget. It just doesn’t matter. The five things that I mentioned are everything.

Discretionary spending, which is what Obama and the Republicans are fighting over now, that’s a worthy fight to fight over 20 percent of the budget. But it isn’t the story. And they both know it. And I’m outraged that they’re not telling people the truth.

These five things that I mentioned - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest on the debt we owe and defense spending - are everything. And until we address all five of them, our status as a great power is on the line."

**​

"The people on the streets. I mean, and I talk to them. I mean, I - promoting democracy is a wonderful thing. But doing it at the barrel of a gun is different than it being organic, indigenous and because of very specific conditions.

The people in the street are clear. There’s a huge demographic problem in Egypt, young people without jobs. Forty percent of the people live on less than $2 a day. And it’s the largest wheat importer in the world, and the price of wheat doubled in the last year.

So, very poor people suddenly became hungry. That’s what happened here. This has nothing to do with George W. Bush or the United States.

And back to our argument, that’s what Americans don’t seem to understand, that - and I give Obama credit for this. This is about Egypt. This isn’t about what America did or didn’t do. We are utterly a peripheral bystander in this. And we are in much of the world.

And a little humility is a very good thing. It doesn’t mean we can’t do anything, but it means we have to be very, very careful about what we influenced, what we did.

I hear from Obama people that his Cairo speech somehow inspired it. That’s equally rubbish.

The people of Egypt had enough. And what set them off was Tunisia worked. They could go in the streets without being killed. They saw a dictator removed by people power, and they were in this terrible position.

Notice I didn’t use the word American in any of that."

**​

"I think the soft power we have is often - I’m here with Joe Nye and some Democrats. I think that’s right.

We have power, but you don’t manage soft power. When you watch a Hollywood movie and you’re abroad - and I’ve been to Egypt many times - they’re not commenting on the plethora, like, gosh, look how well these people live. Look how free they are to say these ridiculous things in this dopey movie.

That is power over time, the image of America. What I’m trying to protect, a la Eisenhower, is our openness, our freedom, the liberty that we enjoy as a second-hand kind of shrug. I think that is tremendously important still.

And I think Reagan got that right. I think Clinton in a way got that right.

That as an example, America still has tremendous power and pull around the world. There’s a reason even in France, when they tax foreign movies - meaning American movies - eight of this top 10 are always still American. It’s an attractive way of living. And people like that. There’s tremendous power in that.

And that’s why, if we fritter away our fiscal standing, we’re frittering away our example. And that’s the greatest thing we have going for us."

 

[Avatar4321]

Now I'm confused. Is Shaman now actually saying that living within our means is a good thing?

Then why the heck is he always opposing us when we trying to encourage that?

 

[kyzr]

I wonder if he saw "Waiting for Superman"? Who can afford to pay for union largess?

 

[Avatar4321]

I wonder if he saw "Waiting for Superman"? Who can afford to pay for union largess?

Just got the movie from netflix. Im looking forward to seeing it.

 

[skookerasbil]

You Eisenhower-Republicans should really enjoy this!!​

John C. Hulsman
Senior Research Fellow, The Hague Centre For Strategic Studies

(It's well-worth-it, watching this!!)​

"I think that Eisenhower, unlike the guys we have now in both parties, had a strategy, had a basic, fundamental, simple view - five or six things that you lived your life by.

One of them was, you have to live within your means, be you a government, be you a person. And that if you don’t live within your means, yes, you can do that for a while. We can print money for another 10 years and nothing much will happen before the bond markets attack the dollar - I mean, that’s a client thing - 2017, 2016, pick your year, somewhere about there.

You can do that. But in the long run, you’re selling the silver to pay the butcher bill. And that’s a really bad idea. And that all of our strength ultimately is economic strength. I mean, look at World War II, what Eisenhower knew intimately. The fact that we could go from an Army that had 200,000 people to an Army that had seven million people - a 35 time increase - only makes sense if you understand the economic wherewithal that General Marshall understood about the United States.

That’s the notion of our strength. And if we lose that, if we sell the silver to live in a silly way, very quickly we’re not going to be able to do that.

That’s the magic of Eisenhower, why I came back to America to do the Cato event, and what I strongly believe in - and what, by the way, neither party are addressing in a grown-up or a forthright manner."

**​

"Well, I mean, discretionary spending, or earmarks, which we all obsess about. Look. Earmarks annoy the heck out of me, too, that some congressman builds a bridge named after himself, or Murtha names an airport after himself that nobody goes to in Pennsylvania.

But frankly, this is one-half of one percent. It’s 0.5 percent of the federal budget. It just doesn’t matter. The five things that I mentioned are everything.

Discretionary spending, which is what Obama and the Republicans are fighting over now, that’s a worthy fight to fight over 20 percent of the budget. But it isn’t the story. And they both know it. And I’m outraged that they’re not telling people the truth.

These five things that I mentioned - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest on the debt we owe and defense spending - are everything. And until we address all five of them, our status as a great power is on the line."

**​

"The people on the streets. I mean, and I talk to them. I mean, I - promoting democracy is a wonderful thing. But doing it at the barrel of a gun is different than it being organic, indigenous and because of very specific conditions.

The people in the street are clear. There’s a huge demographic problem in Egypt, young people without jobs. Forty percent of the people live on less than $2 a day. And it’s the largest wheat importer in the world, and the price of wheat doubled in the last year.

So, very poor people suddenly became hungry. That’s what happened here. This has nothing to do with George W. Bush or the United States.

And back to our argument, that’s what Americans don’t seem to understand, that - and I give Obama credit for this. This is about Egypt. This isn’t about what America did or didn’t do. We are utterly a peripheral bystander in this. And we are in much of the world.

And a little humility is a very good thing. It doesn’t mean we can’t do anything, but it means we have to be very, very careful about what we influenced, what we did.

I hear from Obama people that his Cairo speech somehow inspired it. That’s equally rubbish.

The people of Egypt had enough. And what set them off was Tunisia worked. They could go in the streets without being killed. They saw a dictator removed by people power, and they were in this terrible position.

Notice I didn’t use the word American in any of that."

**​

"I think the soft power we have is often - I’m here with Joe Nye and some Democrats. I think that’s right.

We have power, but you don’t manage soft power. When you watch a Hollywood movie and you’re abroad - and I’ve been to Egypt many times - they’re not commenting on the plethora, like, gosh, look how well these people live. Look how free they are to say these ridiculous things in this dopey movie.

That is power over time, the image of America. What I’m trying to protect, a la Eisenhower, is our openness, our freedom, the liberty that we enjoy as a second-hand kind of shrug. I think that is tremendously important still.

And I think Reagan got that right. I think Clinton in a way got that right.

That as an example, America still has tremendous power and pull around the world. There’s a reason even in France, when they tax foreign movies - meaning American movies - eight of this top 10 are always still American. It’s an attractive way of living. And people like that. There’s tremendous power in that.

And that’s why, if we fritter away our fiscal standing, we’re frittering away our example. And that’s the greatest thing we have going for us."

Its 2011 s0n!!!!!

 

[Mr. Shaman]

This video is FINALLY available!!

Pretty cool.....listening to a REAL Conservative.....for a Change!!

Q & A

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Now I'm confused. Is Shaman now actually saying that living within our means is a good thing?

Then why the heck is he always opposing us when we trying to encourage that?

....Like you 'Baggers' aversion to cutting defense-spending, right???

 

[Seawytch]

If you do not pay cash for your home and automobile, are you living outside your means? We all have debt...that doesn't mean we are BROKE.

 

[Avatar4321]

Now I'm confused. Is Shaman now actually saying that living within our means is a good thing?

Then why the heck is he always opposing us when we trying to encourage that?

....Like you 'Baggers' aversion to cutting defense-spending, right???

What are you talking about? I talk about cutting defense spending all the time. There is no reason we can't cut half the military budget and maintaing efficiency and even pay the troops better.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

If you do not pay cash for your home and automobile, are you living outside your means? We all have debt...that doesn't mean we are BROKE.

Hmmmmmmmm.....exactly which Bush-family member are you????

​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Now I'm confused. Is Shaman now actually saying that living within our means is a good thing?

Then why the heck is he always opposing us when we trying to encourage that?

....Like you 'Baggers' aversion to cutting defense-spending, right???

What are you talking about? I talk about cutting defense spending all the time. There is no reason we can't cut half the military budget and maintaing efficiency and even pay the troops better.

Fair enough.....

From the interview:​

HULSMAN: Well, I mean, discretionary spending, or earmarks, which we all obsess about. Look. Earmarks annoy the heck out of me, too, that some congressman builds a bridge named after himself, or Murtha names an airport after himself that nobody goes to in Pennsylvania.

But frankly, this is one-half of one percent. It’s 0.5 percent of the federal budget. It just doesn’t matter. The five things that I mentioned are everything.

Discretionary spending, which is what Obama and the Republicans are fighting over now, that’s a worthy fight to fight over 20 percent of the budget. But it isn’t the story. And they both know it. And I’m outraged that they’re not telling people the truth.

These five things that I mentioned - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest on the debt we owe and defense spending - are everything. And until we address all five of them, our status as a great power is on the line."