J. Greenriver

I am gonna give a very hot take here by RW Xitter standards, but I think completely shutting down USAID was a mistake. And it has little to do with morality. A fact that many tend to overlook is that foreign aid programs like USAID provide ENORMOUS Soft Power and leverage for the power that is sending it. Even Machiavelli realized this in The Prince: “Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful.” If a government relies on American money to keep its HIV clinics open or to feed people during a drought, it has strong reasons to keep Washington happy. It might think twice before voting against the US at the United Nations or handing a port deal to China. If you really think about it, a lot of foreign aid is really just a polite form of bribery between governments. And influence works like a seat at a table, if you get up, someone else sits down. By completely cutting off USAID, you effectively handed China a big portion of influence for free on a silver platter. And China did not even have to do anything, so now all those kids in Africa are gonna see boxes with the Chinese flag on them, and who do you think they are gonna favour once they grow up to be Politicians? I can understand why a lot of Right-Wingers do not like the idea of sending aid to impoverished countries, but when discussing this, I think a lot of them completely overlook the angle of power and influence, and I don't think going completely isolationist and leaving an influence vaccum for other countries to fill is a good idea, especially when you are a great power like the US.