Tea Party's Blind Spot: Foreign Policy

The Tea Party will have a big say on GOP policy in the next Congress, but what it doesn't have is any coherent foreign policy, writes Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast. The movement might want to stay true to its ideal of reducing the deficit, scaling back the federal government's power, and staying true to the Constitution, but it can't ignore spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or interventionist foreign policy in general, Beinart argues.

If Tea Partiers don't tackle foreign policy and military spending, they will become generic conservative Republicans, writes Beinart. But if they go their own way and come up with a foreign policy based on their demands for fiscal solvency and limited federal power, "they will be a new and subversive force in American politics, and the Republican Party will be headed for a fascinating ideological showdown." (More foreign policy stories.)