Politics & Power Quote by Chris Christie

Christie is doing a very specific kind of campaign-era alchemy: he gestures at restraint while re-sanctifying American primacy. The opening nod to "shared sacrifice" sounds like burden-sharing, a reassuring phrase for voters tired of writing checks and sending troops while allies freeride. But the pivot word, "But", flips the logic. Sacrifice becomes not a limit on American action, but a demand placed on everyone else so the U.S. can keep doing what it was going to do anyway.

The subtext is that global order is a subscription service and America is the indispensable administrator. "Abdicate" is doing heavy lifting here; it frames any pullback as dereliction, not strategic choice. That moralizes foreign policy: intervention becomes character, not calculus. And the clincher, "because of who we are and where we've come from", swaps evidence for identity. If leadership is destiny, you don't have to argue about Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya; you just have to invoke the national origin story.

What makes the rhetoric work is its comforting simplicity. "Stable and secure world" is an uncontroversial goal phrase that avoids naming trade-offs, casualties, or unintended consequences. "Symbol for the world" flatters the audience by turning geopolitics into a mirror: America leads because America means something. In the post-Obama, post-Iraq era Christie is writing into a Republican debate over "retrenchment" versus "strength", staking out a position where fatigue is acknowledged, but only as a reason for others to pay more - not for the U.S. to do less.