That is sad but true. I'm married to a Korean, by the way, and have seen firsthand what it's like to have teenage Koreans know more about American foreign policy than too many of our elected leaders.
There was a day, up until World War II, that conservatives could make a good argument for being isolationists. I'm not saying the isolationists were right, but a policy of focusing on issues in North, Central, and South America, and (in the 1800s) of kicking European colonial powers out of the Western Hemisphere, made a lot of sense in the days when taking sides in European politics would just cause unnecessary problems for America, as had happened in the 1600s and early 1700s due to repeated American phases of European wars.
FReepers, as conservatives, need to understand that in the modern (post-World War II) world, foreign problems can reach out and touch us in a very bad way. 9/11 should have taught that to us. Ignorance of foreign policy is a major problem in the United States, and it leads to our political leaders being allowed to make bad decisions because we don't understand or even care what those decisions are.
Ignorance of foreign policy is something conservatives need to eliminate like yesterday.
It was very embarrassing that even Rush didn’t know who the Lord’s Resistance Army are. He could have done a quick search and saved himself the embarrassment, but he went ahead and blamed “Obama for sending American troops to fight Christians” without first checking. I know he retracted his earlier statements but the damage had been done.
Herman Cain’s “Ubeki beki beki beki stan” gaffe may play well with a certain segment of the population, but it does conservatives no favours - it does not make them look serious.
Many of you don’t realise that for as little as $20 a month (or less) a lower middle class African, Latin American or Asian can access the best of Western broadcast media. In other words, America will be dealing with an increasingly sophisticated, well-informed and critical audience abroad in future.
You underestimate the number of people around the World who (a) speak English and (b) follow politics in America.
Americans used to have conservative presidents like Reagan who had both a detailed understanding of the World, its people and its complexities, but who could, if need arose, educate Americans about the World. Bush, had his heart in the right place, but was hampered by his limited knowledge.
The 21st Century calls for more, not less engagement with the World. That means that we must encourage our children to be more inquisitive about the rest of the World, spend some time abroad or learn another language (e.g. French, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, Swahili).