A New Take On A Candidate's Leadership
The question that engages many Americans-not as Democrats or Republicans but as human beings-is how to restore America's place in the world.
America's role, our responsibility, is to engage our allies-and our adversaries-on the problems that can no longer be confined behind borders. This country needs a fair trade policy with China and India that stops driving Americans' jobs from our country. The nation needs to keep its doors open to visitors without alienating our neighbors and further eroding simple, common decency toward migrants.
America must lead, not follow, other nations in limiting carbon emissions to fight global warming. This country must stop the global trafficking in drugs and human beings in ways that honor the dignity of its victims and the sovereignty of the nations involved.
How do you accomplish all of these things in a world threatened by the proliferation of dangerous weapons and divisive ideologies?
One answer may be to look to the leadership of patriotic internationalists, such as Senator John Kerry. Kerry has faced a difficult two years. Like any candidate who ran and lost a close election, he has been the subject of second-guessing and buck-passing.
However, I believe that at a national moment when foreign policy expertise is needed more urgently than ever before, Kerry offers this country a perspective on the world that is more sharply aligned with America's interests than that offered by many of his Senate colleagues.
On a variety of key and core issues, I believe he has been right on the merits and he has gotten to these positions long before the rest of the pack.
America simply can't wait for January 2009 for the leadership it needs. There's an important role for Kerry to play now.
For many of us who still hold on as moderate Republicans of the past, Kerry's is the only voice making sense, presenting a strategy and talking honestly and openly about the challenges we face and the country he loves.
Jeffrey R. Lewis is president of Heinz Family Philanthropies and served as Republican staff director to the late Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.).
America's responsibility is to engage its allies-and adversaries-on the problems that can no longer be confined behind borders.
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