**NOTE: Our Crash Course Book Club meeting is being pushed to July 23rd at 7pm ET. I’ll post a meeting link the day of the convo with HW Brands and his book America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War. For the slackers who haven’t finished it yet, you’ve been saved. For now.**
America Can’t Fix Everything—And That’s the Point
With crises unfolding in Israel and Gaza, Ukraine still under siege from Russia, and tensions flaring with Iran, it’s a volatile time for U.S. foreign policy (but when has it not been?!). This week on Crash Discourse, I sat down with Rep. Adam Smith, longtime leader on the House Armed Services Committee, to talk about what the U.S. gets right—and wrong—on the world stage.
For my TLDR friends:
We can’t fix everything. We've spent decades trying to solve unsolvable problems—Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon—and paid for it with lives, dollars, and global credibility.
Our military is strong. Still the best in the world. But brute force isn’t enough in a world that’s more complex, interconnected, and unpredictable than ever.
Our reputation has taken a hit. We used to be the world’s reliable partner. Now, too often, we’re seen as unpredictable, self-serving, or both.
The real fix isn’t more money—it’s smarter spending. Smith doesn’t want to slash the Pentagon’s budget; he wants it to stop acting like it’s still 1955.
The biggest threat? Us. If we lose faith in representative democracy, no enemy will need to beat us—we’ll do it ourselves.
There’s no easy answer here. That’s kind of the point.
🎧 Listen to the full episode for a brutally honest—and surprisingly hopeful—conversation about how to reset U.S. power for the real world, not a fantasy one.
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