Chris, Melanie, and Zack take a look at the Summit of the Americas, which was held in Los Angeles at the beginning of June. By all accounts, the summit was poorly organized, and attending leaders were unimpressed with the lack of consultation before the event and with the initiatives set forth by the United States during the conference. The heads-of-state of several countries, including Mexico and Guatemala, refused to attend in solidarity with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which were not invited because the U.S. government considers them to be led by autocratic regimes. Does the planning and execution of the summit tell us anything about the Biden administration’s foreign policy more broadly? What should our policies towards Central and South American countries be? What is the connection between the administration’s domestic and foreign policies? Are President Joe Biden and his team unwilling to make hard choices in foreign policy because the decisions will be unpopular with important domestic constituencies?

Chris is appalled by the Texas GOP’s new platform, Zack is grateful that the COVID-19 vaccine for small children has finally been approved, and Melanie wishes Democrats would stop boosting “Stop the Steal” candidates across the country.

Episode Reading: https://warontherocks.com/2022/06/is-bidens-approach-to-latin-america-a-problem