Zack Beauchamp — A Democratic senator on how Democrats need to rethink foreign policy

Someone on the "left" realizes that the Democratic Party has a foreign policy problem. Hillary Clinton neoliberal, neoconservative worldview is characteristic of the GOP. Many progressives and people of conscience simply will not vote for that.

The left-wing Democratic Party has a problem: On foreign policy, it has no idea what it stands for or how to make that happen. Senator Chris Murphy, an earnest 41-year-old who represents Connecticut and has been involved in national politics since winning a seat in the House at age 25, thinks he has a solution.

Murphy admits, quite openly, that his party has long been afraid to stand up to Republicans on foreign policy. He wants to play a role somewhat akin to what Sens. Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders have done on domestic policy: articulate a new left flank in the debate that could actually change the conversation inside the party.

In a June Foreign Affairs article, "Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy," Murphy and his co-authors, Sens. Brian Schatz and Martin Heinrich, wrote, "The new world order demands that the United States think anew about the tools that it will use to lead the world, including reaching beyond the military budget to rediscover the power of non-kinetic statecraft."

Transforming a party's approach to policy is a tall order, particularly as much of the party coalesces behind the hawkish Hillary Clinton as a likely presidential nominee. So I sat down with Murphy in his office to discuss the principles that underlie his vision of a progressive foreign policy, how they apply to contemporary issues, and how he thinks he can actually win over the party....

VOX

A Democratic senator on how Democrats need to rethink foreign policy
Zack Beauchamp interviews Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)