Thursday, February 2, 2017

Socratic Seminar Question 4 (Period 4)

Question 4: Should the U.S. concern itself with "keeping the world safe for democracy"?

Read the documents below to help you develop your opinion on this essential question regarding the future of our world and the role of the United State sin that world.

Submit your comments below.  For each question, every student should:
  • Write a comment using evidence to back up your opinion (either by referencing the document or referencing specific facts discussed in class or in your readings)
  • Ask a question
  • Respond to someone else's comment or question

Document 1: Woodrow Wilson, "War Message", 1914
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.

Document 2: Woodrow Wilson, Message on the Treaty of Versailles, 1919
It was almost exactly twenty-one years ago that the results of the war with Spain put us unexpectedly in possession of rich islands on the other side of the world and brought us into association with other governments in the control of the West Indies. ... Weak peoples everywhere stand ready to give us any authority among them that will assure them a like friendly oversight and direction. They know that there is no ground for fear in receiving us as their mentors and guides. Our isolation was ended twenty years ago ... There can be no question of our ceasing to be a world power. The only question is whether we can refuse the moral leadership that is offered us, whether we shall accept or reject the confidence of the world.
The war and the Conference of Peace now sitting in Paris seem to me to have answered that question. ... It is thus that a new role and a new responsibility have come to this great nation that we honour and which we would all wish to lift to yet higher levels of service and achievement.
The stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God who led us into this way. We cannot turn back. We can only go forward, with lifted eyes and freshened spirit, to follow the vision. It was of this that we dreamed at our birth. America shall in truth show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead, and nowhere else.

Document 3: Charles Lindbergh, September 1941
We are on the verge of war, but it is not yet too late to stay out. It is not too late to show that no amount of money, or propaganda, or patronage can force a free and independent people into war against its will. It is not yet too late to retrieve and to maintain the independent American destiny that our forefathers established in this new world. . . .

Document 4: Donald J. Trump, inaugural address
Under a Trump administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.  My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security first.

27 comments:

  1. The United States should not concern itself with the affairs of other nations unless specifically requested by the nation and unless the American people are willing. As Wilson said himself every nation had the right to self-determination and it would be folly to try an enforce any system upon unwilling subjects. The US should only worry about events that harm it and its allies as such events would pose harm to the American public as a whole and are thus in the public interest to mend, preferably in the most efficient and diplomatic means possible.

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    1. I agree on your statement regarding Wilson's "self-determination" because each country does have the right to govern itself however its people chooses to.

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    2. What if the United States has a weak political/economic tie should they intervene?

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  2. The United States should not have be concerned about other countries if it does not really concern them. If a country that has no political or economic ties with the United States is having a problem due to not having democracy then it is not the US' problem to deal with.

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    1. I agree, it is not worth the fight if the United States was not even provoked in the first place. In other words, it is another country's battle, not ours.

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    2. What if a country that does have democracy is having issues? Will that make a difference?

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  3. The United States has no business involving themselves in the affairs of other countries. Unless of course, it somehow affects them economically, politically or socially.

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    1. I agree, unless there is no direct effect, the US should not involve itself with any other countries.

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  4. What other reasons, other than spreading democracy, does the United States have to get involved?

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  5. The United States should not concern itself with keeping the world safe for democracy because the U.S. should protect and care for its people first instead of helping other countries.

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    1. I agree because we should not have deal with problems that are not even affecting us.

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  6. Although it would be hard for democracy to stand in a place dominated by other forms of government such as communism, I believe what the US should really only be concerned with keeping itself safe for democracy. If US citizens believe in democracy, then it will prevail, not to mention that interference in other countries would only lead to conflicts.

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    1. Why exactly would democracy have trouble standing in communist places?

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    2. I agree with Rigo. It would be difficult for the United States to enfoce democracy into other states, where the nation is doing their best to keep that idea out to enforce their own system of ideas.

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    3. Why would democracy be troubled by other forms of government?

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  7. Although the United States would like to spread its superior Democracy to all nations across the globe, if it really is so superior then all nations should eventually reach it themselves. The U.S involving herself in affairs to ensure of this would be redundant because after all everyone should eventual reach the best system.

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    1. But what if other countries just simply not reach out for that democracy and instead it grasp something that could make it "unsafe" for democracy to exist in?

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    2. That country chose that, shouldn't change that by force.

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    3. What if the country never gets to the point of reaching the best system as the US has?

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    4. It would not even matter if other nations do not reach the "best system" as government gets its right to govern from the content of the governed.

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  8. While democracy is great and all, the United States should really avoid any foregin conflicts. It only creates trouble times and can potentially hurt the country instead of helping and spreading its ideology.

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    1. Does Wilson wants peace, what would he do to fix it?

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  9. While the US would like to spread democracy throughout the world, it should be chosen by the people of the government not of a foreign country. By forcibly instilling this type of government on others we would just create more problems.

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  10. The United States should focus on it's people and its own land, not other countries. Instead of intervening with others it should fix problems within itself

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    1. Intervening in other countries problems is what Wilson wanted, making the Fourteen Points.

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  11. What would be some reason for the US to be interventionist?

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  12. In Document 4, Democracy keeping the citizen safe first than the whole world.

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