But they have decided (with the notable exception of Rand Paul) to move further and further into the boots-on-the-ground, carpet-bombing, regime-change, faux-fierce world that got us Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
His failure in 2004 to attend the ceremonies in Normandy to mark the 60th anniversary of D-day, when he might have stood alongside world leaders, provoked fierce public hostility.
One attribute is shared by most who populate this fierce art world: masculinity.
Listening to the music of Iannis Xenakis, who has died aged 78, is like being flung back into some fierce atavistic world before culture existed.
Whimsically costumed in bright red T-shirts and tights, with additional dark sweatpants affixed to their fronts, courtesy of belts and ankle ties, they burst in like some sort of gender cameo, a not unwelcome but decidedly alien interruption in a meditative and fierce female world.
The son's résumé included five successful years as a head coach in the Ivy League -- at his alma mater, Princeton, where he also served as an assistant under the legendary Pete Carril -- but no experience in the high-stakes, fierce-recruiting world of Big East basketball, which routinely produces national champions.
To compete in the fierce and expanding world market after World War II, the company decided to develop an airliner, powered by turbojets, with enough range to cross the North Atlantic.
In the kidney world, fierce debates take place over the best way to address the shortage of organs.
Whether encapsulating the whole drama of Tannhäuser in a thrilling and spacious account of its overture, or conjuring up the fierce, dark sound world of Götterdämmerung in Siegfried's Rhine Journey and Funeral March, it was unforgettable.
*All of this taking place in a fierce new political world where the collapse of party discipline has made it extraordinarily hard for officials on Capitol Hill, let alone for a president, whether of their party or not, to lead.
