The Democrats' Democracy Problem

Democrats today have a problem with democracy. We have lost our voice on the issue of promoting democracy abroad -- which means that what was once a core Democratic foreign policy idea is being ceded to the GOP.

In 1995, democracy promotion was one of the three central pillars of President Bill Clinton's first National Security Strategy. Rereading the document today, with its call for "a more secure world where democracy and free markets know no borders," I'm struck by how the idea of expanding democracy's reach permeated official Democratic thinking a decade ago.

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