For decades this country has been trying to sell democracy to other nations with some success but with mostly failures. From all indications, President Donald Trump is framing a new foreign policy that includes not “lecturing” countries on what is wrong in their lands, including rights violations.This raises questions: Does the United States have a moral obligation to try to stop policies of other countries in which violations of civil rights occur and where there is bloodshed? Do we have an obligation to lecture other countries about their policies?This country, especially under President George W. Bush, felt very strongly about spreading democracy throughout the world. He didn’t have much success.After World War II, the United States set up governments in countries that had been our enemies, or under their control, that became somewhat like America with democratic structures. Outstanding examples are Germany and Japan. People in those countries have enjoyed freedoms and for the most part have had stable governments.It has been a hard sell in the Middle East. Those countries and their people are different in nearly every respect and have long traditions of a lifestyle that is radically different than what we have in the United States, and in many other countries. Their religious beliefs and cultures are deep-seated.Do we have an obligation to help people in those countries because of civil rights violations and other evils that are occurring? Is it right for us to ignore those evils?Because we are big and powerful, is it right for us to force democracy on those countries?Most Americans probably would agree that we should help people who are suffering in other nations. How far should we go?“We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,” President Trump said in Saudi Arabia the other day.That sounds like a reversal of the policy that we have had for decades.