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Donald Trump vs. Bernie Sanders—2 Sharply Different Views of America’s Role in the World

One is an imperial gangster; the other seeks to create a world “not based on greed but based on justice, on decency.”

America’s century is over. History has not ended. This has become the new conventional wisdom even among the keepers of convention.

The challenge is how America finds real security in this new era. This month, we witnessed two strikingly different answers: one from the self-proclaimed most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump, and one from the champion of the rising populist movement on the left, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Trump’s address to the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly was a characteristically grotesque performance, essentially a raised middle finger to the 190 country representatives gathered before him and the UN itself. Amid the routine farrago of lies, boasts, threats, and resentments, he presented a stark vision of America’s emerging role: essentially an imperial gangster—that, if pursued, constitutes a clear, present, and harrowing threat to this nation’s security.

To the Victor Go the Spoils

After a stump speech preening about America’s primacy—“Our economy is the envy of the world. Our military is the most powerful on Earth. Our technology is second to none, and we are leading in virtually everything. Our energy is fueling the planet”—Trump turned to America’s role in the world.

He boasted about the bombing of Iran, the “peace” in Gaza, the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and control of its oil—“to the victor go the spoils”—the bombing of fishing boats in the Caribbean designated as “foreign terrorists,” the blockade of Cuba, “failing like never before and it will fail.”

Each of these—from aggressive acts of war to aiding and abetting genocide to illegal blockade—represent a brazen and open violation of international law and the UN Charter. Trump is saying that America will continue to police the world, only not to enforce the law but to enforce its will and to take what it can get. In apparent acknowledgment of the lawlessness, he issued a scurrilous attack on the International Criminal Court, “an evil group of people,” calling on all members to resign from the “rogue institution.”

Ironically, this fool’s errand of brazen plunder isn’t Trump’s greatest disservice to US national security. As the UN secretary general warned in his opening remarks, the world is struggling with the growing costs of real and present dangers that can no........

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