Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
During the second hour, Carmichael explained how a vote for Joe Biden would be a vote for the foreign policies of Bushes’ past administrations. He added that he felt it was America’s job to lead and not to intervene.
Leahy: And we are joined in the studio as we almost always are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by our good friend and the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, good morning.
Carmichael: Good morning Michael. How are you? Did you have a hard time driving in this morning? Was there a traffic problem? I’ve heard reports are some traffic problems out there.
Carmichael: Well, not on not on the Hillsboro Road.
Leahy: If you’re coming in on Hillsboro Road, you’re okay.
Carmichael: So far.
Leahy: If you’re on Highway 40 going west there are some problems out there so you should be careful.
Carmichael: Yes, we are repairing Weir re topping Hillsborough Road. So it’s you feel you feel like you’re grinding up your tires if you’re driving downhill. Because they’ve taken off the darn thing where you can take off the top before you put down the new surface.
Leahy: But it’s an excellent example of Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of creative destruction. You have to destroy the crumbling road to build a brand new.
Carmichael: We’ll have one soon, I’m sure.
Leahy: So Joe Biden is been in his basement the past couple of days. They put a lid on this campaign. You know, there is there are all sorts of allegations of corruption swirling around. And a lot of them that are fact-based. What’s Joe Biden’s plan for the next day or two as he prepares for the debate tomorrow night?
Carmichael: Well, Michael there are some interesting articles, and I think this will come up in the debate. At least I hope I hope foreign policy comes up at least a little bit. I really do because it’s so important. But here’s something interesting. There was an article written by a guy named William McRaven. And I really thought it was and I thought it was a spoof article at first.
Leahy: Not in the Babylon Bee?
Carmichael: Not in the Babylon Bee, because I thought it was because it was talking about what a great leader Joe Biden is. So I assumed and I truly thought it was.
Leahy: You thought it was a parody.
Carmichael: No, it wasn’t this guy. This guy, he’s just a he would be a Democrat Never-Trumper. Now that’s really quite something. But I just want to talk a little bit about the world as it is today and the world as it was when Trump came into office. So let’s talk about it. But this guy right has a quote about George Bush. It says that’s at the end of chapter Bush at the last chapter of the book A World Transformed. By the way, George H.W. Bush happened to be president when the Soviet Union fell.
The Soviet Union fell because of Ronald Reagan’s policies. Nothing George Bush had anything to do with. But he says it’s what he says. The importance of American engagement has never been higher. If the United States does not lead there will be no leadership. If we fail to live up to our responsibilities and if we shirk the role that only we can assume if we retreat from our obligation to the world and indifference, we will one day pay the highest price once again for our neglect and shortsightedness. Now, what does that say?
Leahy: It says let’s intervene this everywhere.
Carmichael: That’s essentially what this author believes is America’s role.
Leahy: Where is that in the Constitution by the way?
Carmichael: The Bush family is a very nice group of people. What they did as two presidents that 12 years is terrible. They were both and I just have to say it. They were both lousy presidents. They were because they believed exactly what this is. That it is the United States’ role to essentially solve the world’s problems and be the world’s policeman. And maybe what the role of the United States is is to lead by example, but not lead by intervention. Lead by persuasion rather than lead by force.
Leahy: I really like that phrasing.
Carmichael: What did I say?
Leahy: The role of the United States is to lead by example and not by intervention. That is a profound statement, Crom. And it’s only 6:38 a.m. in the morning and you’ve said something very profound.
Carmichael: Well, I’ll accept the compliment. But what this article goes on to talk about it goes on to talk about Joe Biden’s bona fides, if that’s the right way of expressing it.
Leahy: Bona fides.
Carmichael: Of his foreign policy and there are there very few people that I would say have a worse foreign policy record than the Bushes. And Joe Biden is one of them.
Leahy: Pretty bad.
Carmichael: In fact, I can’t think of anyone literally. I can’t think of anyone who has been on the wrong side of foreign policy issues when he has taken a position. He is just terrible. and he and he still is because he says what he’s going to do. So, let’s look at the world. Let’s look at the world when Trump came into office. You had the Paris Climate Deal, which was destroying manufacturing in the United States and bolstering manufacturing in China. That is essentially what the Paris deal did. Biden says I’ll get back in it. Now, why would Biden get back in?
Leahy: He loves China.
Carmichael: And he loves all the money that his family’s getting that kind of like biggest plus just be absolutely just straight. Now even before he was getting money though, Joe Biden was a China apologist. And let me say this, there are a lot of people in Washington who for 35 to 40 years thought that China once they became economically strong would become more like us.
Leahy: There is the ultimate myth. The false premise upon which American foreign policy has been based for 30 years.
Carmichael: Yeah. And now anyone with half a brain can see that China is somewhere between an adversary and an enemy.
Leahy: Moving closer to enemy.
Carmichael: Yes. There are essentially four categories now, then there can be things in between. There are competitors. There are adversaries and there is an enemy. And a competitor would be someone that you just compete with but you’re not an ally but you compete with them on trade and things like that. And they’re not necessarily, in fact, they are not bad. They are a competitor.
But then you get into the adversary and that is somebody who seeks harm for you without direct military force. And then an enemy is someone who is trying to destroy you at the time that you call them an enemy. And China is at least an adversary and is moving in the direction of being an enemy because we don’t know. We do not know whether or not the coronavirus was intentional or not.
We do not know. What we do know is that it hadn’t affected the Chinese people nearly as much as it is as affected the Western world. That we do know. Let’s just go through kind of the the the institutions of the world. You’ve got to the World Health Organization, which is clearly in the tank for China and they’ve done just a terrible job. You have the United Nations which recently appointed to the Human Rights Council China, Cuba Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan.
Leahy: These are all just bastions of oh, I don’t know crushing. Crushing individual liberty.
Carmichael: So the United Nations as an organization is just worthless.
Leahy: It’s actually less than worthless.
Carmichael: I was getting ready to say it may be harmful. And then you’ve got the EU.
Leahy: The European Union. And by the way, the French TV crew that was in here for the Arte Channel, funded by the EU. So you can imagine what their worldview was. We had a different worldview. We have a nice exchange with them.
Carmichael: Yeah, and we talked about the EU the other day where there are 27 members of the EU and in some cases, in order to move they have to have a unanimous vote. Which means they don’t. And which means they can’t move.
Leahy: They can vote for bathroom breaks and the adjourning.
Carmichael: Yeah, that’s about it.
Leahy: Somebody said that once. And that would be you.
Carmichael: I did.
Leahy: You have so many things and you say.
Carmichael: I’m feeling a little bit like Biden. Did I say that? I can’t remember what I said yesterday or even earlier today.
Leahy: You would make a much better president.
Carmichael: Well, you’re nice. But when you look at the international organizations and the organizations that Biden wants to become a bigger part of his ideas of foreign policy are to take us back to the days of the Bushes. That’s why I started with the Bushes because what the Bushes did in foreign policy was terrible for our country. They might think that they must do this for the world. No, actually you lead. You don’t force and you don’t intervene. You lead by example, not by intervention.
Leahy: Yes. A great line.
Listen to the full second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.Â
