Support for universal human rights is not a subset of strategic national interests. Support for human rights is a strategic national interest. It defines American Exceptionalism and demonstrates that we truly remain Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.” Foreign aid must be tied to measurable, verifiable progress in racial and gender equality, religious tolerance, and the very same freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.

As your Congressman, I will:

• Work to develop sensible and just international solutions to ongoing conflicts such as those in Kashmir, Palestine and Darfur that have fostered repression, terrorism, and the murder of millions of innocents.
• Consider multilateral military intervention, with regional support, to establish “safe zones” in war torn areas such as Darfur, Kashmir, and Palestine as a means to preventing atrocities and genocide. While we are not the world’s policeman, we can join with other countries to take measures to provide protection and relief for refugees.
• Support legislation to de-centralize the United Nations and establish regional U.N. centers on each continent, supported financially and with troops by the nations in those regions, to deal with the issues related to those regions. U.S. financial support will be dependent on the demonstrated level of commitment by the regional nations and the absence of corruption in financial affairs.
• Support sanctions against regimes that engage in repression of human rights.