My hobby: very long political grudges. pic.twitter.com/3MVEmPV2nf
— Jacob Remes (@jacremes) May 29, 2017
We've all chosen to forget now, because of course we're always on the side of good, a shining city on the hill, a force for morality and democracy in the world, but once upon a Apartheid was a very tribal thing in American politics. If you were a good conservative or a "hard-headed foreign policy realist" you were pro-Apartheid. If you were a Republican or a part of the "foreign policy establishment" or a young overachiever who wanted to be the latter, you were basically pro-Apartheid, or at the very least anti-trying to do anything about Apartheid. And there's nothing the "foreign policy establishment" hates more than the rabble attempting to influence world events outside of their control. Well, that and leftish governments and self-determination by brown people.
The basic justifications for maintaining Apartheid were that a)black people aren't really capable of governing - just look at American cities! and b) if white people are the minority in a democracy black people might treat them as white people have been treating black people.
Glad plagiarist Zakaria is having such a wonderful career, convincing the totebagger crowd that conservative foreign policy positions are actually liberal.