Emily Davis
During the past Democratic Debate, only 22 minutes were devoted to foreign policy perspectives. Given the state of the world currently, that was not enough time to understand what each candidate prioritizes. Additionally, some of the candidates passed on speaking on this topic altogether because they do not have a foreign policy stance yet. I think it is incredibly important to highlight foreign policy in these debates because the United States has a very powerful and influential presence around the world. I do not think any of the candidates gave enough information about their foreign policy plans, which is dangerous because people around the world are watching the Democratic debates just like we are.
The only real substantial foreign policy stance the candidates spoke upon was condemning President Donald Trump’s decision to pull all troops from Syria — abandoning our Kurdish allies. However, they did not say if they would actually pull out all of the troops from the Middle East eventually either. The lack of clarity and substance from the Democratic candidates is confusing. It shows that a lot of the candidates have not really thought about foreign policy.
Also, a lot of the candidates had opinions of past presidents’ foreign policy, but they really did not explain their own stance. The candidate that spoke the most about foreign policy was Vice President Joe Biden. Given that he was exposed to a lot of foreign policy decisions as vice president under President Barack Obama, he still did not say much about his foreign policy stance.
The average American citizen really does not care about the United States’ foreign policy, nor politics around the world. However, a lot of people from around the world tune into American politics very closely. The United States needs to understand this concept, especially the Democratic candidates. We need to show that the United States does care and pay attention to what is going on around the world.
I also think it is critical that we understand how things that happen around the world effect the United States. When I go to the voting polls on Nov. 3, 2020, one of the top things I will consider when voting is the candidates’ opinions and perspectives on foreign policy, and I think that average American citizens should care and pay more attention to foreign policy.