Wild parties.

• Author: Norquist, Grover G.
• Position: Political conditions - Essay

THE GENIUS of the U.S. Constitution has given America political stability and economic liberty that have combined to create the richest and most powerful nation on the planet--spending only 4 percent of the nation's income on the military. The combination of political cohesion and unrivaled wealth has allowed the United States to survive and thrive despite foreign-policy decisions that might have flailed to protect smaller, more fragile nations.

Some have argued that we are, or recently were, the leader in a unipolar world--a hybrid between the British and Roman Empires with better dentistry, and plumbing. Still, the experience of the past several years suggests that even a colossus needs a competent foreign policy.

The structures of our two major political parties, the relative strengths of each and the issues that rally the two coalitions do not bode well for getting from here to there.

For several decades following the Civil War, the Republicans and Democrats were regional parties. But during the political life of the beloved Ronald Reagan, they divided along recognizable ideological lines. The Republican Party became the vehicle for a center-right coalition of businessmen, taxpayers, property, owners, gun owners, home-schoolers and the various communities of faith that feared the aggressively secular state that primarily wanted one thing from the central government--to be left alone. The Democratic Party became a home to the members of the Left--labor unions, trial lawyers, government workers, contractors--who saw themselves as beneficiaries of government spending and state power.

Neither of the two parties house a major coalition member that votes on foreign policy. During the Cold War, the leave-us-alone coalition included anti-communists, often refugees from Eastern Europe, Cuba, Indochina, the Soviet Union and other nations in contest.

Today the two parties are evenly matched: Note the close elections of 2000 and 2004, and the House and Senate's thin majorities in either direction from 1995 to the present. Each coalition demands complete loyalty from its constituent parts and looks for the silver bullet that will achieve a stable and significant majority. The foreign-policy debate has become a central front in that struggle for majority status--at the expense of designing and implementing a serious and successful foreign policy for a great nation.

This is why the Iraq War and occupation have become the objects of partisan bickering...