Speech: Reconciliation and Renewal: A Vision of a Positive Agenda for U.S. Global Leadership

By Rep. Dick Gephardt
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
New York, New York

"Thank you for those warm words of introduction. Though I'll be honest: I love Iowa, but after a few days there in the winter, pretty much anything feels warm.

"As a longtime member of the Council, I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be back here. Some of you are probably wondering why I'm here at all - in New York City, in mid-January of a presidential primary season, about to engage in a sober and substantive discussion not of soybean prices or volumetric ethanol - but of America's role in a changing world.

"I figured it's a slow week on the political front; I might as well take advantage of it. The truth is, amid all the hand-shaking and door-knocking that's going on in Iowa and New Hampshire this week -
beneath all the sound bites and sloganeering and political histrionics - it's easy to lose sight of what's really at stake in this election.

"The presidency's not a popularity contest. We're not choosing the political flavor of the month, though it often seems that way. We're not handing out awards for best performance in a 60-second infomercial. We're choosing the next leader of the free world. We're choosing nothing less than the face and the name of American liberty for the next four years. And ultimately, we're deciding how, and perhaps even whether, we model freedom and advance American values for the whole world.

"We're deciding whether American foreign policy is reduced to bluster and recycled Cold War taunts or whether we have a real and sustained commitment to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance -
to expand the circle of global prosperity - to actually prevent the next wave of tyranny and terror, rather than allowing it to fester in weak or rogue states and then wringing our hands when it shows up at our door.

"For my own sake, I probably should be in Iowa right now, tending to next Monday's caucuses and other more parochial concerns. But the very heart of my candidacy - one of the central reasons I'm running for president, in this time of trial and terror - is to restore American leadership in the world. To show that foreign policy is more than a John Wayne movie, more than a forum for boasts and bravado and amorphous, ad hoc coalitions.

"American foreign policy is the way we foster and strengthen our deepest values, the way we guide developed and developing nations alike toward democracy, toward self-determination, toward the free flow of capital and ideas that make up the American dream.

"American foreign policy also requires a constant engagement in an active public diplomacy that directly communicates with nations and peoples around the world our common interests in security, prosperity and peaceful coexistence. That's not what's been happening in the current administration.

"My problem with the Bush foreign policy team, and the cold warriors they've brought out of semi-retirement to run it is their overwhelming arrogance and lack of appreciation for the subtleties of democracy-building or alliance-strengthening - all those niceties that intrude on their Hobbesian world.

"I believe America deserves better than a foreign policy that's left us isolated in the world and increasingly vulnerable at home. I believe America has to engage the world, and invest in it - that we have to lead it instead of bullying it.

"I believe that advancing America's security requires not the construction of barriers against the world, but rather the projection of our values throughout the world. And I believe it's the job of the American president to rally public opinion, at home and around the world, for what is right and what is just in global affairs, for what makes us safer and what makes us stronger, and for what wins real converts to the long-term cause of freedom.

"My vision recognizes that our domestic agenda is intertwined with our foreign policy; a diplomatic agenda of 'Reconciliation and Renewal' built on creating allies, not enemies; an overarching vision that is clearly focused on defending our freedom while we promote the freedoms of others; and leadership that relies on our true power as a nation, the enduring example of the American democratic experiment.

"After the tragic events of September 11th, America had a unique opportunity for global unity. There's probably no time in American history that we've had a greater opportunity to build a new world coalition for freedom. Even the headline in the leading French newspaper, Le Monde, read: 'Nous sommes tous Américains,' 'We are all Americans.'

"Yet today, as many of our troops begin a second tour of duty in Iraq and their families worry that they may be the victim of tomorrow's truck bomb, this administration still has not managed to persuade allies to deploy troops in numbers that will ease the burden on our forces there.

"There has been a lot of focus in this campaign on my support for President Bush in the days after September 11th. And yes, I supported the congressional resolution that gave President Bush the authority to act in Iraq, even as I urged him to seek multilateral support through the United Nations.

"I don't apologize for that, and I'm not sorry that Saddam Hussein is gone. But the burden of proof for a failed foreign policy - the presumption of guilt for a deadly quagmire in the sands of Iraq, with no exit strategy and scant international support - does not rest with those who supported it, on good faith and with America's security at heart.

"No, it is the Bush administration itself that bungled the debate at the U.N., fumbled the U.N. supervised weapons inspections, failed to build a coalition to help our soldiers, and now has no apparent plan to bring safety and democracy to the Iraqi people.

"So we can agree or disagree about the war in Iraq. But as the Council knows so well, foreign policy is as much about means as it is about ends. At a time when threats appear not as troops along a border, but as intercepted e-mails and satellite photos. At a time when even our sometime adversaries hold intelligence that can help us capture the deadliest terrorists. We have to engage and embrace our allies and partners more than ever before.

"And if American foreign policy is not a clear reflection of American values - if we don't honor and embrace the principles of democracy and humanity and self-determination as we battle tyranny and dictatorship - then America will increasingly be seen as a global vigilante, cracking heads but unwilling to address the real causes of terror, of instability, of autocracy in the world.

"We don't need a president who says, 'bring 'em on' to those who would do us harm. We need a president who will do the hard work of diplomacy and says, 'bring 'em in' to those who share our aspirations for freedom, peace and security.

"We don't need a president who's virtually AWOL from the Middle East peace process, as the violence and the animosities escalate. We need a president who will push and prod and put America's leverage on the line to heal critical war-torn regions of the world.

"We don't need a president who jeopardizes years of delicate talks with North Korea with hyperbolic, cheap rhetoric and fails to follow through with a coherent strategy to deal with the most significant threat in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"We don't need a president who jawbones foreign governments about their economic policies, while he plunges us into the highest level of debt and deficit in our history.

"And so I'm here to advocate a broader vision, a more interconnected vision, of U.S. foreign policy. One that makes the hard and unglamorous choices in the present, so we might not have to put our men and women in harm's way in the future.

"Over the past several months, I've spoken often about my vision of how we can advance America's national security. I have discussed the threat posed by terrorists and the proliferation of dangerous weapons, and how we must secure our nation against them. I have spoken about our immediate need for effective homeland security measures, in order to secure our borders and our citizens.

"In order to succeed in the war on terrorism, America must have a strong and comprehensive strategy. This involves maintaining the best military forces in the world. It also means developing important non-military capabilities and collaborating with allies, because the terrorists can often be deterred or caught just as well through joint law enforcement activities, border patrols, and financial stings as they can with military force.

"America must also strive to prevent threats from emerging, especially those that are most dangerous to our national security. Rather than simply seek to preempt threats before they are inflicted on our nation, we must work to prevent them from emerging in the first place. This is particularly important in the case of weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation.

"But there is another dimension of security that is essential for our nation to prosper and retain a global leadership role. It's not the security that comes just from stronger defenses; it's the security that comes from broadening the scope of our vision to other nations and people.

"It's about projecting American optimism and our hopes for the future, not our fears. It's about projecting American values, the universal values embodied in the four freedoms - freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear - that underpin life in a democratic society.

"My vision is one in which America takes the lead in building, strengthening and expanding a community of like-minded nations that - through common aspirations and efforts - push to the periphery and eventually eliminate the destructive forces that thrive on instability.

"Through strong U.S. leadership, this initiative would isolate the world's extremists and terrorists, rather than allow our own nation to become isolated, which George Bush has done. It begins with a stronger, more vibrant economy - one that lifts people out of poverty, indigence, and fear - here at home, and internationally as well.

"There's no question that the growth and strength of the global economy has brought more and more nations into the circle of freedom and democracy, and has strengthened and deepened our political alliances, too.

"But America is in grave danger of weakening the world economy, instead of strengthening it. In three short years, President Bush has turned a $5 trillion surplus into a $5 trillion debt - and remember that our historic budget surpluses were completely gone before September 11th.

"According to an IMF study released just last week calling into the question the wisdom of the Bush tax cuts, America's rising debts could reach 40 percent of our total economy in a few years, which could jeopardize the value of the dollar, raise global interest rates, and slow global investment and growth to a crawl.

"As Paul Krugman noted in The New York Times last week, it's enough to make former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin - a calm man without an exclamation point in his vocabulary - sound positively shrill. Secretary Rubin has long recognized the risks to our domestic and international economies associated with our ballooning budget and trade deficits, as he recently said, 'If you cut taxes enough, raise the deficit, you'll undermine the economy and put the government in a position where it can't do what it wants to do.'

"We certainly can't lead the world if we're an economic drag on it. Nor can we afford the resources we're going to need - both military and nonmilitary - to reassert a constructive U.S. leadership in an unstable and uncertain world.

"One of the defining issues of my campaign has been a return to economic sanity, to the Clinton economic policies I shepherded through congress as House Majority Leader a decade ago, as well as a health care plan that increases the strength and stability of our workforce, provides stimulus across our economy, and puts an end to the market-distorting economic giveaways that have caused the Bush deficits these past three years.

"We also need coherent international economic policies - and we sure haven't had them from this administration.

"Try to figure out what their policy on the dollar is. As far as I can tell, it's that we should have a dollar, and everything after that is up for grabs. The confusion hurts our credibility, both with financial markets and with other nations.

"This administration has flip-flopped over the management of international financial crises. First they told the world they wouldn't help countries that couldn't service their own debt. A few months later, they supported exactly this sort of help through the IMF. Then they decided to let Argentina default on its debt, rather than pitch in at all.

"Global economic leadership isn't an improv act; America has to provide stability, predictability, and consistency for the world - not a new kind of global guessing game. Along with this comes the need for a sound trade policy - where, for the past three years, this administration has flipped and flopped, even while trade deficits have reached appalling new highs.

"I know I've stirred up some controversy on this issue in the past. So let me say at the outset that I'm for free trade, and I've always been for free trade. But when we're forced to trade with nations that use slave and prison labor - when our trading partners don't even follow the meager labor and environmental laws on their own books - when trade is really just a way of averaging out the world's wages, and shedding jobs for the sake of cheap consumer goods - when other countries respond to our trade liberalization by limiting access to their markets - then I don't see how that trade is especially 'free,' and it is definitely not fair.

"Our goal in trade negotiations can't simply be shipping more cheap sweaters back and forth, regardless of the terms or the human consequences. Truly free and fair trade has to be a way to lift living standards and expand economic freedom both at home and abroad.

"That's why we have to fight for trade policies that raise wages and standards, so everyone does better. If we don't, it'll be a race to the bottom, where wages plummet, living standards fall through the floor, and poverty flourishes. The Bush administration's fine with that, but I'm not.

"As president, I'll press the World Trade Organization, which I have supported from its inception, to establish my proposed international minimum wage - different for each country, but always high enough so we don't compete with slave, sweatshop, and child labor around the world. I believe this would create millions of new global consumers for our products and help build an expanding middle class in those countries.

"Now, the right economic and trade policies are the foundation for what we must do internationally. But they are only a part of how we will succeed in reasserting US international leadership.

"We must also help those in the developing world who are struggling to join our community of like-minded nations succeed through broadly conceived and effective development assistance policies. We must restore the US to its leading role among industrialized nations in addressing the root causes of extremism and terrorism.

"Our definition of foreign assistance must be broadly conceived to provide assistance in the promotion of democratic institutions in developing countries, as well as provide support for emerging economies. And our foreign assistance resources must be effectively directed to make the right investments in the poorest countries that are potentially the most fertile ground for the seeds of extremism and terrorism to grow.

"Not only will a Gephardt administration expand America's capacity to provide development assistance by increasing the available resources, my administration will be committed to rebuilding the institutional capacity needed to successfully carry out effective development assistance policies. I will change the attitude in Washington that has starved USAID and other such institutions.
"While the Bush administration has talked a great deal about the need to expand development assistance, the rhetoric has usually come up empty. They've already cut the first deposit into their much-touted Millennium Challenge Account by 25 percent - and cut one-third out of their own global AIDS initiative, as commendable as that initiative is.

"As president, I'll fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. And I'll fulfill the Presidential Pledge to Action on Global AIDS to help prevent HIV and AIDS, and to bring us toward an AIDS vaccine, so this dreaded disease no longer saps the lifeblood out of people and economies across the globe.

"I've seen first-hand many of the developing world's problems - from the tragedy of those suffering from HIV/AIDS in Africa to the crushing poverty of Mexican workers in the maquiladora plants on the U.S.-Mexican border. That's why I'm deeply committed to achieving the international community's Millennium Development Goals.

"Such a commitment will require that we not only put up funding, but that we liberalize trade rules and assist countries to restructure their debt. And in some cases, it will require substantial debt relief, which I have been a strong advocate for. We've got to make enormous strides toward alleviating poverty and hunger, securing universal primary education, banishing sickness and disease wherever possible.

"A focus of my foreign policy agenda as president will be the active promotion of democratic institutions worldwide. We need to engage our allies in a concerted effort to accelerate the process of democratic reform throughout the world. With focused strategies that use our collective political and economic muscle, we must actively assist countries through the transition to more free and participatory societies.

"We should take the lead in supporting efforts to build a multi-nation Democracy Caucus -
to promote sound governance, the rule of law, and progressive economic policies throughout the world. Through this caucus and on our own, we should push for reforms at the United Nations and other international organizations so they become more effective at promoting democracy and prosperity. And right off the bat, I believe we should double our contribution to the National Endowment for Democracy and its constituent organizations - which do so much to strengthen the institutions of democracy in other countries.

"And we should pursue other ways to directly promote democracy. We must continue to press for an improvement in women's rights, the expansion of human rights and associated freedoms.

"We must promote a free and active press, through both technical assistance to independent groups and consistent pressure on governments. And we must reconstitute U.S. libraries and America Houses around the world so more people can learn about the real U.S. and the principles that make our democracy work.

"We must also take steps to give ordinary people a greater economic stake in their societies. I'm a strong supporter of micro-credit for developing nations - so small-scale entrepreneurs can start their own businesses and reap the full bounty of economic freedom.

"A Gephardt administration will double the U.S. government's current commitment to micro-loan funding so that people in countries like Uganda, where 250,000 families have benefited from international micro-loans can continue to build economic activity at the grassroots.

"And with the accelerating speed of the modern economies of the world, and the sheer explosion of technology in every facet of our lives, we must close the growing divide between developed economies and poorer economies, so all nations can share in the promise of a safe, free, stable world community.

"Political and economic freedom, after all, are sustained by something deeper: the human freedoms and shared prosperity that support a consensus for engagement and reform. Ultimately, people's faith in their own self-government - their belief that they can share in an ever-widening circle of human dignity and self-sufficiency - is one of the most powerful weapons in any nation's arsenal.

"Finally, we can do a lot more to enable average Americans to contribute to our national security. For 40 years, the Peace Corps has served an important role. Given the challenges we face today, the scope and reach of the Peace Corps should be dramatically expanded.

"That's just a start. In 1995, I co-sponsored a bipartisan effort to bring Russian entrepreneurs to America for intensive business training. Without initiatives such as this one, Russia would have had a much slower transition to market capitalism, which truly underlies and sustains Russian democracy. There are literally hundreds of such efforts across the globe that deserve more attention and support.

"Our nation's educational institutions abroad help train young people to be the political and business leaders of tomorrow, while inculcating the universal values that we all hope will take stronger root across the globe. We should increase our support for these institutions and review where we can build more in the developing world.

"And while we have to do everything possible to secure our nation against future terrorist attacks, we must strive to maintain the openness of our society for those who see America as a beacon of hope and prosperity. By welcoming those who want to learn about America, who want to partake in our economy and the freedoms we so often take for granted, we can spread the gospel of freedom and self-determination through public diplomacy that doesn't cost us one budgetary dime.

"In January of 2002, I traveled to North Africa and the Middle East to take a look at how our post-9/11 foreign policy was being perceived overseas. During that visit, I met with a large group of Moroccan students at Marrakech University.

"In the course of over 90 minutes, I witnessed what can only be described as an eruption of anger and frustration over the Bush administration's attitude toward the developing world in general, and their region in particular. I was struck by the depth of hostility toward the Bush policies, in what we all know is one of the most moderate and pro-American countries in the Arab world.

"Near the end of our meeting, a Moroccan professor stood up and asked the students whether any of them would like to study or live in the United States, despite their fears and concerns. Nearly every student in that room raised their hands.

"This encounter clarified for me the essence of our challenge today, and the urgency of our task. It demonstrated that the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism has cost our nation the unequivocal leadership role that we have held in the past. But it also suggested to me that people in the developing world still admire our country, what we stand for, and the opportunities we represent.

"America stands for something more than the Cold War anachronisms, something more than the reckless unilateral abandon of this administration. We are still the world's capital of freedom, one of the last, best hopes of humankind.

"We must reach out to these people, not push them away. We must build new bridges, not walls. We must join forces with nations to build a better global community for all, and in so doing isolate the terrorists and the autocrats - not our own beloved nation.

"And we must do it now. There are no quick fixes to these problems, but we must act now. Four more years of this administration's approach to the world will only make the problems more difficult to solve and increase our isolation and inability to lead.

"By adopting a broad vision and an integrated strategy to build a community of democratic and prosperous nations, we can restore alliances and build new partnerships around the world. With this approach, we can all be more secure.

"I'm not going to come before you, days before the presidential balloting begins, and say what's fashionable in our politics. That I'm a Washington outsider, that I couldn't find the nation's capital on a map, that railing against the system is good enough, that I don't have decades of experience around the world, meeting with leaders and grappling with the complexities of U.S. foreign policy. I'm proud of my experience. I think we could use more of it, not less of it, in the White House next year. And if you don't think seasoning and experience matters, you should probably vote for someone else.

"But I want to lead this country because I know what an active, engaged America can do. I know how we can model freedom, and extend its fullest promise. I know how new leadership can rebuild our fractured alliances - and pave the road to many new ones.

"I love this country, and I want it to remain the strongest force for peace, prosperity, and freedom that this world has ever known. With your help and with the wisdom in this room, I believe we can make that happen.

"Thank you for listening - God bless you - and God bless these United States of America."