'Isolationism' is slur against noninterventionists

"Ron Paul is an isolationist, I get it," declared Sean Hannity on his radio talk show following the November 22 GOP debate that focused on foreign policy.

In eight simple words Hannity unknowingly confessed that he doesn't get it.

Or, far more likely, he knowingly joined the chickenhawk left and neocon right in using the isolationist label as a slur against peaceful, freedom-loving, non empire-building, non world-policing, non-warmongering, decent Americans.

The isolationist smear is intended to conjure up the cartoon image of an ostrich with its head buried in the sand, a cliché for people who think no evil will befall them if they just refuse to see it coming.

CNN's website also used the isolationist canard in its post-debate article by saying, "Paul took on the role of the lonely isolationist throughout the debate."

Ron Paul, like Thomas Jefferson and modern libertarians, is a noninterventionist.

To understand how that differs from head-in-the-sand isolationism simply refer to this oft-quoted quote from America's third president:

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none." - Thomas Jefferson

Nonintervention means maintaining a sharp eye for trouble while having at hand the means to deter it when it comes, but otherwise keeping your nose out of other people's business.

Genuine free trade around the world isn't isolationist; it's noninterventionist. And so is refusing to blunder about in empire building, military conquest and destabilizing and overthrowing governments by covert CIA chicanery under the guise of protecting whatever the governing gangsters pretend are "American interests."

Interventionists love poking their noses everywhere and in every way those noses can be poked.

For example, the CNN article further included this information on Paul: "He also questioned the point of humanitarian aid, including money to combat AIDS and other diseases in Africa."

Few people seem to understand that foreign aid – money stolen from taxpayers - is just another interventionist scam. Little to zero of that money goes to help the suffering people in other countries. It goes into the Swiss bank accounts of those country's ruling thugs, as bribes, to keep them dancing to the tunes played by the American interventionist thugs.

It's unfortunate that many libertarians don't get it either, falling into the trap of calling libertarian foreign policy "isolationist."

It's an important distinction everyone needs to learn so they, unlike Sean Hannity, can say, "I get it."