Stacey Abrams in Council on Foreign Relations
On Civil Rights:
Voter suppression is an existential crisis in the US
voting rights are essential and fundamental to democracy. We are facing an existential crisis in the United States. When our democracy is shredded by a
naked pursuit of power that allows states to suppress the right to vote, and handicaps or neuters our only federal response, which was the Voting Rights Act, we face a crippling challenge to our democracy.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
We've returned to isolationism, driven by fear-mongering
I no longer believe that there is this bright line between domestic and foreign policy. I think what we have seen play out in the last few years has shown us just how thin that line is, if the line exists at all. You cannot be an effective leader in
domestic policy if you do not understand how foreign policy not only informs, but sometimes challenges and pushes into relief the tensions that exist. And so, yes, I care a lot about foreign policy and have been doing it for a while.
We've, unfortunately, returned to what can often be cast as sort of the know-nothing time of our foreign policy. When we were an isolationist country, that is much of what we're seeing now, only instead of it being grounded in a sense that
America is stronger by itself it's actually couched more, I believe, because of the leader we have, in racism and xenophobia and sexism and homophobia, misogyny. And it's driven by a fear-mongering that is undermining exactly who we should be.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Our moral credibility in the world has been diminished
My deepest fear is that we will have to take a long time to restore our position in the world because our moral credibility has been diminished. It is a matter of degree, not of difference. We have to remember that in the United States it looks
slightly different, but we have a Muslim ban on entry, we have undervalued and mistreated voters right here at home, and we have allowed the blossoming of laws that have systematically suppressed minority rights and minority votes.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Representation matters in our foreign service
As of 2018, our Foreign Service corps was 88% white and two-thirds male. That has not always been so. Under George Bush, George W. Bush, Clinton, Obama, we actually saw a diversification of our foreign policy corps in a way that was truly reflective of
who we are as America. Representation matters, but also the diversity of ideas and our ability to engage. When we send our foreign corps to the Middle East, having women who can have conversations with other women is an important consideration.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Concerned China building infrastructure, relationships
What China is doing with infrastructure, it is deeply concerning because that type of largess comes with obligations. There is a good to building infrastructure in place where colonization and disinvestment has disrupted development. But I think we
should be deeply concerned about how it's coming into being. We need to be prepared to intercede when the bill comes due. Because China understands what they're doing. They are building out not only infrastructure but relationships.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Free Trade:
Trade policy should not be based on brinksmanship
I think the responsibility of foreign policy leaders is to remind domestic communities that it matters how people operate abroad because it increases our national security if they're not angry with us. It increases our national security if we are making
smart policies about access to weapons but also access to medicines. It's connecting the dots so that people recognize that we are part of a global community, and that we are safer and stronger and more effective when we have foreign allies.
The only solution will be to engage in trade policy and a trade engagement that is not based on brinksmanship, which is what we've seen play out for the last few years. For many states, our agricultural sector is the number-one industry.
When you cut off those who are exporting our goods, you are hurting our farmers at home. They cannot afford it. And we are undermining our national security by undermining our economic security.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Prefers organizing systems for change to legislating
The Senate was not the right place for me. My bent for most of my adult life has been systems--figuring out how do you organize systems to create change, to structure and promote the ideals that I hold to be true. I've created organizations such as the
New Georgia Project, and most recently Fair Fight Action and Fair Count, to tackle the issues that I see. And those tend to be more executive-level jobs. I've run organizations. I have been a part of managing teams.
Our responsibility is to always have a forward vision that assumes that we will be better than we were. That's been the experiment of the United States. Our national experiment has always been about recognizing
that we make deeply, deeply flawed decisions, that we have been inhumane in ways that are a shame to our national history, but why we are who we are is that we confront those challenges and we try to improve.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On War & Peace:
US should be judicious & careful with our use of military
The reality is that often the armed conflicts that we enter--not always--but there are some armed conflicts where it is about the protection of people's bodies. And we cannot diminish the importance of America leveraging its military might to
actually protect those communities that are at risk. I think we should always be judicious about and careful with our use of military might. War is a terrible, horrific thing.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
On Welfare & Poverty:
Reducing the top not enough on income inequality
We have to recognize that income inequality is a danger because of what it signals to our economy. We need to be increasing access to economic security, we need to be taking aggressive steps to ensure that more people can make more money and do more
things, but I disagree sometimes with the notion that if we just reduce the top then that's enough, because if we reduce the top but we don't increase the bottom and we don't strengthen the middle, then we're going to be in the same place again.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race
May 10, 2019
Page last updated: Mar 16, 2022