Exactly fifty years ago, in 1976, I remember as a young grade 3 Student all the fanfare and hoopla revolving around the Bicentennial of the United States. It was all over the news and in publications sold at what we called PX stores, and souvenirs brought home to the Philippines by Fil-Am relatives. Emerging from the ten year national trauma caused by the Vietnam War that resulted in America’s first defeat in a foreign conflict, the celebrations went hand in hand in trying to bury that humiliation in forgetfulness and historical revisionism, and in looking ahead to a more optimistic future. Unfortunately for the U.S., the Iranians and Nicaraguans decided to spoil that a few years later.
However that was short lived as the Reagan years saw a revival of American jingoism best exemplified by Hollywood’s ultrapatriotic cinematic releases that jived with Washington’s pushback against the communist bloc. The end of the Cold War and the quick victory against Iraq in Operation Desert Storm finally purged the U.S. of the trauma of Vietnam. The new millennium saw the U.S. enter it as the sole and preeminent superpower in the world. It was for all intents and purposes the most powerful country in recorded history given its reach, military might, and economic strength. However, within a quarter of a century, the U.S. has found itself enmeshed in uncertain and doubtful times where its position in the world is in question, and where weaker rivals are poised to take advantage of whatever fumbling that the Americans may do.
So what happened to the U.S.?
There are three causes that significantly contributed to this and they are the following:
- The Post 9-11 War on Terrorism
Prior to the 9-11 terror attacks, the Americans tended to be allergic to engaging in protracted conflicts and this was primarily because of the effect of the Vietnam War on them. Although they did not necessarily stop in engaging in foreign conflicts, they did their best to limit exposure of their forces. They did that in Iraq when they together with Coalition partners, they launched punitive actions against the regime of Saddam Hussein if he was found violating the ceasefire agreement. The Americans also limited the scope of their peacekeeping operations in places like Somalia preferring to leave it instead of getting mired in nation building. In fact, it seemed that the U.S. was so worried about mission creep.
Well, the 9-11 terror attacks threw all that caution out of the window and the Americans were filled with some form of righteous resolve for ultimate vengeance. Initially they did fine in Afghanistan by the end of 2001 having defeated the Taliban with the help of NATO and the Northern Alliance. The installation of a new Afghan government that was pro West was seen as a positive development. However by 2002, the Americans lost the plot and voices in the heads of hawkish conservatives wanted to expand the war against Iraq to finally get rid of Saddam Hussein. To do so required justification that would be acceptable to the international community to start a war. Hence, the great myth of Saddam’s alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction was peddled by the U.S. to the United Nations but unlike 1991, the international community was very skeptical about American allegations against Iraq. In 2003 the U.S. and its so called Coalition of the Willing launched an invasion of Iraq that defeated the remaining forces of Saddam and yielded not a single WMD.
Then the Americans decided to do something that they were wary about doing before, and that was to nation build too in Iraq. The end result was that the U.S. military got bogged down in that country as it engaged in internal security operations and dealing with a rebellion that resulted in an Iraqi Civil War that almost saw the victory of Islamic fundamentalists. Distracted by Iraq, the Americans also became bogged down in Afghanistan as the hoped for reforms were never delivered by the pro-Western government there that became mired in corruption and inefficiency. Twenty years later, the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan in scenes that were eerily similar to the evacuation of South Vietnam as it collapsed.
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- Corporate Greed – A distinct feature of the United States is the manner in which majority of its people regard capitalism as an essential American value. It is that reverence for capitalism and a disdain on anything that remotely resembles socialism which they then oversimplify as communism that has allowed capitalism to thrive in the U.S. in a way not seen in many industrialized countries. This allows American business to seek profit for their companies as much as possible and by any means necessary.
Precisely because as the decades went by, government regulations that were implemented in the U.S. made it difficult for such American companies to realize the profits they dreamed of, the natural reaction was to deindustrialize and move industries and even services abroad. The result was that by the beginning of the 21st Century, communities in the U.S. that once housed powerful industries became ghost towns as everything was located abroad and mostly in China. Ironic in the sense that the Chinese used this windfall provided by American corporate greed to build a powerful economy second only to that of the Americans, and a military that is a threat to U.S. interests in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Shorn of the nice globalization rhetoric that was used to justify this transfer of industries from the U.S. to China, it just amounted to the desire to obtain greater profits by using cheaper labor. For American companies, the American working class could go to hell.
In that situation it was not difficult for the establishment of an oligarchical class of businesses that have strong or complete control over political individuals and even parties. That has been going on for quite a long time in the U.S. However, today, in the second Trump administration, the exercise of oligarchical influence is more blatant than before because this is seen in the manner as to how the president rewards his cronies and even his family with no regard for the niceties and legalities of the concept of conflict of interest.
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- The mainstreaming of extremism in American politics.
President Obama’s term was seen as a bright shining example of American politics and democracy. It was as if the United States had finally reached that stage of political and social maturity that other nations could only dream about. America finally had a black man for a president after all the frustrated attempts of the late Reverend Jesse Jackson. What people then did not know then was how that victory of Obama galvanized conservatives and how the actions of both sides allowed their respective marginalized extremist groups to slowly influence policy making and decisions in the Republican and Democrat Parties.
If there is one thing that needs to be understood by anyone looking at the U.S. is that regardless of what is said, the concept of race is wired into the very DNA of American society regardless of ethnic and racial background. It defines who the person is and how he or she relates in American society. To dismiss it or to reduce it to only white supremacy is to ignore equally significant racial beliefs among other groups. That is why many Americans regardless of race and creed get so easily worked up on certain issues. American society is a peculiar melting pot where the races and ethnic groups despite the constant stirring still keep to themselves in large clumps.
The U.S. is no stranger to extremism which can manifest itself in very deadly ways. Extremists in the U.S. such as Jim Jones of the infamous Jonestown Massacre on which the saying “drinking the Kool Aid” was derived from, the Branch Davidians and the Waco Siege, Timothy McVeigh and the Bombing at Oklahoma City, are all deadly examples of that which have resulted in high body counts. However they were always shunned from the mainstream and considered aberrant by the powers that be.
Unfortunately lines were drawn during the Obama administration by political and social forces that any action that was perceived by the other as radical regardless if it truly was not, became the basis for a radical or extremist counter reaction. Perception became the key and feeling offended, slighted and worse persecuted resulted in the need to mobilize to defend what was feared to be lost or needed to be gained. As an example, the reexamination of history and historical figures that intensified during the Obama years became a rallying cry on each side that instead of unifying further divided the country. Unfortunately, the actions taken by both sides in countering each other, allowed extremists to gain footholds to the point where they could challenge the mainstream of their respective parties. This was not the work of the political old guard but was the handiwork of the American left wing that sought to increase its influence in the Democratic Party, and the right wing populists who eventually emerged as today’s MAGA in the Republican Party. The Democrat and Republican old guards were just too cowardly or inutile to put a stop to it. That was the point when Americans on either side realized that the civility that used to exist between the Democrats and Republicans was replaced with what was appearing to be hatred for each other.
That is where the U.S. finds itself now on its 250th birthday. Instead of a joyous celebration, there is a mixed and even indifferent reaction to it. There are Americans who are even excited to see the official government celebrations fail due to the fact that they have no love lost for Donald Trump and everything that he stands for. On one side in America, you have the Democrats, steadily being influenced by the left wing which has an agenda entirely different from the Democratic Party, coddling anti-Semites, and prone to implement questionable policies on immigration, crime and governance that have little regard for real world conditions.
On the other side, you have the Republicans who are in an advanced state of being coopted by grifters, anti-intellectuals and outright racist elements. The incompetence of one party would mean the electoral victory of the other, and vice versa. Meanwhile the country is being led by a man who has been smeared for his grift, lasciviousness and corruption, while his administration is filled with sycophants, incompetents and individuals with weak moral foundations. A real honest to goodness 21st Century Idiocracy.
Happy 250th Murica!!!!
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.