It has become a truism to say that “everything is political.” But being obsessed with politics is not the same thing as being good at thinking politically. It is striking, in fact, how many political discussions are conducted in essentially judicial language. For Americans too often think that the purpose of political observation is to discern rightness or fairness, such that politics itself basically cashes out as applied morality and law. The great diplomat George Kennan once criticized the American tendency to view international relations in legal and moral terms. This tendency, he wrote, “runs like a red skein through our foreign policy.” That red skein has since gone global.
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