Pete Wehner: What Happens When Morality Leaves U.S. Foreign Policy? Venezuela, Greenland, and "Might Makes Right"
Good Faith
Intro
Curtis Chang introduces the episode and guest Pete Wehner, framing the conversation about U.S. foreign policy shifts.
Can Christian Americans Resist Authoritarian Drift?
Pete Wehner—The Atlantic columnist and former Reagan and Bush administration staff member—joins host Curtis Chang to ask the uncomfortable question: in Trump's America, is morality a loser that's been replaced by the "law of the jungle"—especially in U.S. foreign policy? From Venezuela to a looming Greenland/Denmark showdown that could fracture NATO, Wehner argues we're watching "might makes right" go mainstream. The antidote, he says, isn't vibes—it's resistance: stop living within the lie and start living within the truth.
00:04:23 - Explaining the U.S. Foreign Policy Shift
00:06:36 - What Is America's Moral Aspiration in Foreign Policy?
00:07:57 - Trump's "Will to Power" Ethic
00:11:34 - Do We Have Historical Amnesia?
00:16:36 - Contrasting Trump and PEPFAR
00:19:09 - The Disconnect Between Christian Identity and Policy
00:26:34 - Demagogues and Moral Erosion
00:34:19 - President Trump's Unique Amorality
00:37:10 - Primacy of Human Dignity and Christian Ethics
00:41:01 - Venezuela, Greenland, and Moral Implications
00:44:02 - The Value of Beauty and Creation
00:47:14 - What Are the Limits and Possibilities of Action
More about the Religious Landscape Study pewresearch.org/rls
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Mentioned In This Episode:
- Pete Wehner's article Trump's Folly
- More about PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)
- Anne Applebaum's Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- William Galston's Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power of Political Speech
- Jeane Kirkpatrick's essay Dictatorships and Double Standards (Commentary)
- Václav Havel's The Power of the Powerless
- David Brooks' article America Needs a Mass Movement—Now Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades (The Atlantic)
- C.S. Lewis' idea of active obedience is found in Mere Christianity
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize Lecture (literature, 1970)
More from Pete Wehner:
- Pete Wehner's articles at The Atlantic
- Pete Wehner's opinion pieces at The New York Times
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