All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides.

The American empire will not disappear... because America does not have an empire.

After all, the past is our only real guide to the future, and historical analogies are instruments for distilling and organizing the past and converting it to a map by which we can navigate.

All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides.

The government can give citizens opportunity and it's their responsibility to take advantage of it.

The American political system is so porous, it's so open, it's so frustrating for those who are trying to make policy.

To call the American role in the world imperial was, for many who did so, a way of asserting that the United States was misusing its power beyond its borders and, in so doing, subverting its founding political principles within them.