OPINION/ANALYSIS:
Peter Robinson, the Ronald Reagan speechwriter who gave us “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” recites this story about President Reagan at Pointe du Hoc in 1984: Told he was to receive the Croix de Guerre from the French, Mr. Reagan said: “That’s for bravery. I only flew a desk. I couldn’t possibly accept.”
Fearing a diplomatic embarrassment, Mr. Reagan’s aides asked for confirmation. They brought back a correction. The president would receive the Legion d’Honneur - for statesmanship. Grinning, Mr. Reagan straightened the over-large knot of his tie and said: “Well, I can play that role.”
Indeed he could.
Conservatives need to know more about Mr. Reagan’s 1984 Mexico City Doctrine. In the culture wars of Washington, that policy too often gets short shrift. Yes, it did mean the U.S. would not back Planned Parenthood or the United Nations Population Fund or any outfit that performs or promotes abortion. And, yet, it also meant that coercive population programs would not get support from the United States.
But it meant so much more. Mr. Reagan’s Mexico City Doctrine was a true reflection of his worldview. He did not view people as a problem. He did not see population growth as an obstacle to development. He spoke out for free peoples and free markets.
A conservative future in foreign policy should embrace Mr. Reagan’s core beliefs in the Mexico City policy. We should stand for free peoples and free markets. India turned away from the socialist policies and population-control coercion that disfigured the world’s largest democracy in the 1970s and is today thriving. Mr. Reagan would understand.
By re-adopting Mexico City, we will put ourselves on the side of the world’s “poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We will be echoing the wisdom of John F. Kennedy, who sent a message to the people in the huts and villages of half a globe: The United States of America recognizes that the “rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”
America should stand for children’s rights as well. Not as the Convention on the Rights of the Child puts it. But as timeless principles have spoken to children’s rights. They have a right to life. They have a right to be a child - not to have their childhood innocence stolen from them. They have a right to a mother and father who are married and whose rights their government respects. Thus, we need to stand up for the bold initiatives of Congress and the president against human trafficking.
Conservatives never seek to force people into any particular faith, but we recognize the rights of people of faith. American foreign policy should not be shy about promoting religious liberty. It was the first of our civil liberties. If the Afghan and Iraqi constitutions, for example, contain “repugnancy” clauses that say nothing can be done that is “repugnant to Islam,” these clauses are really invitations to armed mullahs to overturn all the other guarantees in those fragile constitutions.
Most states that have seats in the United Nations have signed onto the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 of that document recognizes the right not only to practice our faith, but also to change our religion or share our religion with others. Conservatives need to make sure that these guarantees are not empty promises.
Family, faith, and freedom - these are principles that can form a solid basis for American foreign policy in the future.
Ken Blackwell is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and a senior fellow at the Family Research Center.
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