Tag Archives: American Exceptionalism

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A SHOT IN THE FOOT

If you’re not aware of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech Tuesday at the World Economic Forum, learn about it fast.

It’s the future Trump bequeaths us. A world in which we, the people of the United States, no longer matter the way we have my entire 71-3/4 years. 

What Carney said, basically, is what we’ve been trying to point out since this country put Trump back in the White House a year ago. 

Basically, the world is tired of trying to figure out what this buffoon wants or doesn’t want. Of him proposing nonsensical actions and wondering if he really means it. Of criticizing and belittling our loyal partners while turning tyrants and murderers into role models and buddies.

Who the hell thinks one of our enemies is Canada? Or Denmark? Or Mexico? Or France?

Who the hell looks up to Putin? Or Xi? Or MBS? Or Netanyahu?

The civilized world is through with this crap. Unlike the American Left, they can and will shake Trump off. They will treat us like the second-class power we’ve become. They’ll deal with us when it’s in their interest and ignore us when it’s not. And if we try to bully our way into what rightfully belongs to them, they will fight – even if they lose, they’ll make us bleed and hurt.

Since the end of World War II, we’ve claimed to be the moral and cultural compass of the world. We talk about freedom as if we are the best exemplars of it – as if other countries don’t have it as much as we do.

Because they thought we were trying to achieve a more perfect union, they gave us the benefit of the doubt. The civil rights movement, which Trump asininely proclaims hurt white men, made other nations believe that we were reckoning with centuries of racism and the legacy of slavery. We wanted emerging nations to embrace democracy and the electoral process – even as we tried to make it harder for some to cast a ballot.

Carney called BS on this. The United States has turned from paying lip service to ideals to not even trying. It remains a powerful nation, with a massive military and weapons enough to destroy the world. And, with this cetriolo seeking a dictatorship or absolute monarchy, the policy of this administration is to get what it wants by whatever means necessary – mores, alliances and tradition be damned.

The Greenland debacle is the epitome of it all. I mean, it has never crossed a rational mind that there should be any dispute. If you read a book, if you ever watched “Borgen” on Netflix (a great Danish TV show!), you know that Denmark and Greenland have an 800-year history that has worked itself out. 

The United States has as much access to Greenland as it could possibly need right now. And yet, we put our relationship with all of the European Union at risk because of some need to add territory.

Trump appeared to back down Wednesday after his debacle of a speech at Davos, giving the face-saving we’ve-agreed-to-talk-about-it he loves to use when he caves from his ridiculous demands.

But my guess is the world is fed up. It has more important things to do – there are real problems to solve involving climate change, global migration, technology and economic justice. If the United States wants to ignore this, that’s its problem.

Except that we’re Americans, so it’s our problem.

Here’s one way this will all manifest itself:

The United States dominated the automobile industry for much of the 20th century. It only ceded its leadership when it refused to innovate – and Japan and South Korea filled the void. That’s why Toyotas and Hyundais dominate the road – and Fords and Chevys get harder to find.

Now, just as the American carmakers figured it out and started down the path of non-gasoline powered vehicles, Trump is ending any incentives to keep going. He wants more oil – re: the Venezuelan tomfoolery. He wants to drill in parts of this country set aside for environmental protection.

That’s dumb. That’s also expensive – while gas isn’t as high as it was a few years ago, you still pay something between $2.50 and $3 a gallon for it.

Meanwhile, Europe and China have looked at the innovation in electric vehicle manufacturing and are betting big on it. The progress made in the last 10 years is phenomenal – imagine what it’ll be like in 2036.

Except here. The rest of the world will be running on sustainable, low-cost electricity while we putt-putt and need to fill the tank.

Joe Biden tried to fix this. Kamala Harris would have protected and expanded his gains. Instead, Trump is trying to erase it all.

It’ll be this way in everything else. Food and appliances. Airplanes and technology. The arts and sports.

The images of America that will guide the rest of the world won’t be F-16 flyovers and the Academy Awards. It will be watching goons terrorize the people of Minneapolis and sending people to countries they’ve never known. It’ll be the adoration society for a senile dingbat with no culture, no soul, no compassion and no intellect.

We’ve cast aside our empire. We ruled the world – and the world didn’t seem to mind.

Now it will. We shot ourselves in the foot. This time, the wound won’t heal as fast as Trump’s ear did – if it heals at all.

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SETTLERS

Perhaps it’s our nature to believe that, as Pangloss says in “Candide,” “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”

Especially for Americans. We’ve been the world’s most prosperous country for a century or so. So we have a standard of living that is pretty high – and certainly much better than those struggling in poor or war-ravaged countries.

So complacency is a default mode. 

The problem with complacency is that it runs into another aspect of nature – aspiration. We want to be better. We want to be the best.

Sometimes that’s not so good. This must be the greediest period I’ve known in my 71 years. Those who have a lot want a whole lot more. A Republican Congress passes a tax bill that disproportionately favors the wealthy. Tesla tries to make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. A CEO grabs a tennis player’s autographed hat from the kid he gave it to.

But more often than not, aspiration is a positive. Staying the same is almost impossible, because time affects everything. But trying to get better, to do better – that is how we make progress and advance society.

Most of the people who have come into this country without documentation didn’t do so to take away American jobs or flout American laws. They did so because of an aspiration to live a better life than one of fear or deprivation in their native country. That aspiration was so strong that they didn’t let the inability of this country to figure out how to let them in legally stop them.

The people of the United States could have responded in kind – double entendre intended. They could have realized that while this country has led the way in exploration and innovation, nothing stays the same. You have to keep growing to stay a leader. 

And the key ingredient to American growth has been taking new ideas from people of different backgrounds and synthesizing them into progress.

So welcoming immigrants has always been in our best interest. 

Unfortunately, that is not the path the plurality of voters chose last November.

And forget complacency. That would be a positive compared to what they voted for.

Regression.

It’s in the phrase. “Make America Great Again.” Implying that America isn’t great now. That the path of inclusion is not the way to a better future. That the restrictions and limitations of the past were a far better way than adapting to changing times.

So you have three paths for what might no longer be the world’s oldest democracy.

— Moving forward. Taking the gift of fresh blood and ideas, and then parlaying them into a stronger, safer, more equitable society.

— Moving backward. Thinking things were better without regard to people who are different from the majority of the country. That the old ways of doing things, that the old rules and laws, that the old ideas about society and science are the path to happiness.

— Complacency. Believing you can fight off change or the reversion to the old norms. Saying things are OK as they are and attempting to weather the storm that’s brewing around us.

There’s a part of me that thinks the plurality of Americans is in the third group.

If we stay quiet, if we don’t encourage but don’t discourage the reactionaries in our midst, they’ll burn themselves out or just get tired. Let’s hang on to what we’ve got.

As if that is what will allow us to keep it.

We’ve become settlers – and not in the pioneer sort of way. We’re ready to settle for what we believe is peace. 

But that’s not how it works.

We shouldn’t want to preserve democracy. We should want to improve it. Abolish the Electoral College. Make it easier to vote. Limit the spending and campaigning so that we’re not so overwhelmed by political ads and social media posts.

We should want to maintain our standard of living. We should want it to grow. We should do what we can to eliminate poverty, hunger and homelessness. We should aspire to new technologies – not just in developing iPhone 17s, but in transportation and medicine. We should make sure our children, elderly and disabled are cared for without straining a family. We should ensure that every one of us is entitled to love who we choose to love and be loved by who chooses to love us.

We should not settle for what we have. We should want more – and we should want it enough so that everybody who wants more gets a fair shot at getting it.

That’s obviously not happening now. Now is the autumn of our discontent.

But before we can fight to end MAGAism and Trumpism, we must know what we want. And what we should want is not for things to stay the same, because they can’t.

It’s September 11, the 24th anniversary of the worst attack on the American homeland that we can remember. Let’s resolve not to be afraid – as we’ve been too often since that sunny day in Manhattan and Virginia –  of adversaries foreign and domestic, the bin Ladens and the Trumps. 

Let’s not settle. Let’s strive to be better.

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