The Heritage Foundation is launching a new initiative to "apply America's first principles" to foreign affairs. Julia Shaw gives us a preview:
The principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence are the standards by which all governments (not just Americaâ??s government) should be instituted and are to be judged. America is the only nation explicitly founded upon the principles of human equality and natural rights, but these principles are applicable to all men and all times, as Lincoln said. What do these truths mean for our international relationships?
Well, let's see, it would mean the end of a lot of them for starters. It would also throw a rather large monkey-wrench into America's counter-terrorism policy, which entails an expansion of executive authority into things like assassinating American citizens on the basis of secret evidence, that I don't think the Founding Fathers would have been down with.
