I worry about America...

 

Seriously, I do.

For my entire life, the United States of America has been a beacon of hope and peace and democracy, whether under a Republican or a Democrat Administration. Amidst all the gung-ho posturing and often angry rhetoric - and sometimes it could be very angry indeed (and often about what in my view were the wrong things) - and despite a pathological Superiority Complex the size of the Andromeda Galaxy, I always felt the country could be relied upon to Do The Right Thing.   And mostly it did.

The Government and its spokespersons always trumpeted its successes, its "American values" and the sanctity of its Constitution; how there was no alternative - indeed, could never be an alternative - to Freedom, Democracy and The American Way, while at the same time leaving millions of its citizens in unemployed misery in ghettoes in every city, every large town, because of the colour of their skin or the place of their birth. I turned a blind eye and a deaf ear as they tried to force these beliefs onto nations that were never in a million years likely to accept them, in both the Middle and the Far East, even neighbouring Central America.   And of course Russia (sorry: the USSR) and its bloc.  And invariably at gun point.

I worked with many, many Americans in my banking career, much of it spent working for Wall Street behemoths like Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers and Bear Stearns, so I heard this refrain every day of my working life, along with lectures on how technologically advanced America was, and how wealthy (both due to Capitalism and education and health care systems that were world class) its population was (except for the unfortunates I mentioned above, who were never mentioned in these conversations). There was mystification when I innocently pointed out that some of the scientific breakthroughs, like the discovery of DNA, the development of penicillin, the first jet engines and the World Wide Web, were actually made by British educated and employed scientists and engineers, and told I didn't know what I was talking about. In the end, I gave up, went with the flow and stopped arguing (though without every changing my mind).

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I'm not sure when my live-and-let-live attitude towards America and Americans changed. Perhaps it was on my first trip to New York, when I was waiting in line at Passport Control at Newark Airport. I was next in line, behind a German family, harassed by an official because of their imperfect English (and ignoring his total lack of German). There were three kids, all under about 7 I would guess, tired, bored and a bit fractious (probably hungry too) because of the interminable delay. The youngest, no more than two or three, while his parents were again trying to answer another question, wandered off, a few paces past the desk where the parents were now close to tears of frustration. Suddenly a cop, behind the row of desks, dropped into a crouch, whipped out his pistol and pointed it at this little boy. "Who's is the kid?" he bellowed. "Who's? Come on, I'll fuckin' shoot!"   The mother leapt forward, scooped the confused and terrified child into her arms, and the pair of them dissolved into floods of tears as she tried to comfort him and his now terrified siblings.

The cop put his gun away, and he and the passport officer proceeded to berate the poor family for failing to control their kids, pointed out they were in America now not some shitty European dump, stamped the passports and told them to "get the hell out of here." Then they angrily waved me forward for my grilling. Welcome to America, I thought, as I stepped forward. 

This was in early 2000.  Or it may have been a couple of years later, after the shocking tragedy and carnage of 9/11. No-one who witnessed that (as most of the world did, like me at work on a variety of tv's, worried because I had friends in our American subsidiary with offices half-way up the North Tower: thank God, they all managed to get out before the collapse and survived) can fail to have been moved by it and understand that whoever was behind it had to be brought to justice. But the (probably understandable) anti-Muslim backlash, stoked up by the rhetoric coming out the Bush White House without any real facts behind it was probably not the wisest response. The subsequent invasion of Iraq (a country that had played no part at all in the actual atrocity) only added more fuel to the fire. The absence of a plan for a post Saddam regime and further attacks on Afghanistan made those sentiments even worse, and the resulting conflicts that dragged on for twenty years left tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands dead or maimed, most of whom were simply ordinary people unconnected with the criminal gangs and terrorist cells that filled the power vacuum created by US and Allied troop withdrawals. None of the terrorist actors the wars were supposed to destroy were defeated: they still exist, diminished perhaps, but still active and filled with a membership drawn from the sons and grandsons of the innocent victims, now seeking revenge. Religious fundamentalism, particularly Islamic but arguably spread to Zionism and the kind of anti-immigration Far Right regimes popping up and gaining popularity across Europe and elsewhere, has increased over these 20 years. The War on Terror is far from won.

Then there were Wikileaks scandals. I was working in Trinidad at the time Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning's trove of documents was released, and our entire project team (I was the only non-American or local working there) were up in arms. To a man, they called for Manning to be shot, on the spot, without trial, and demanded the arrest of Julian Assange and closure of his news platform for treason. I gently pointed out that Assange, as an Australian citizen resident then in London, hadn't actually committed treason and as far as I could see hadn't committed a crime, since publishing "news" on a "news website" was his job. Sure, you could argue that the information was stolen, but that has never stopped any news outlet from publishing something in the public interest (and arguably never should). When I actually saw some of the stuff, that clearly documented war crimes carried our by the military, I applauded (and continue to do so) Manning's courage in bringing it to a global audience and Assange for having the guts to help him. War crimes can never be justified. Ever.

Some years ago, after all this, I published a piece on my blog (in fact the Manning business was one of the triggers for my starting the blog: as an outlet for my views as part of the global discussion I felt was needed - I still believe that) that was critical of US conduct at the time and suggested that America needed a dose of humility (as in being more humble themselves, as a nation, as opposed to humiliating others or being themselves humiliated) and accept that other nations and religions and political systems and belief systems have a right to exist, and millions, even billions of people equally have an equal right to follow them. The American Way and Capitalism are fine for America and Americans, but not for everyone else. I still have no doubt at all this is the case.

If anything, the Trump years and their aftermath make me even more convinced that this is the case, and that, right now, there is something rotten at the country's core. I still cannot fully understand how this clown won his Term of Office: he has made and lost fortunes by bullshitting and bullying, and is a misogynistic serial liar. This was evident before his election and nothing he has done since has shown otherwise. And yet millions of Americans voted him into office and turned him into the most powerful man on Earth (if only because of America's vast wealth and military might: certainly not for any mental or political aptitude, which in him remain completely lacking). He did it off the back of internet conspiracists and religious fundamentalists (that word again) that somehow  convinced the Great Unwashed and the chancers who would do anything to turn a profit - uber Capitalists, if you like) that milked a political system that allows an Electoral College to win the Presidency despite losing, heavily, the popular vote. Not the first President to do that, nor will he be the last, but certainly the least intelligent or competent.

Chaos reigned. At first it was funny, and how we laughed at his antics: self consciously doing a sword dance in Saudi Arabia, barging his way to the middle of the front row, desperate to be The Man, at his first NATO summit photo call. Wooing Putin (who couldn't believe how lucky he was and promptly invaded Crimea because he knew he could get away with it) and Mr. Kim (who equally couldn't believe his luck and increased his nuclear weapons production as soon as he got home). Denied Covid was anything more than a bad cold (even after his own hospitalisation) and suggesting ingesting bleach could be a good cure, while at the same time ignoring all his top scientists and medical advisors and refusing mask mandates until the death toll reached the millions (and doing little to stop individual cities and states that chose to ignore them).

He lost the next Election and refused to accept that either. His supporters, the same Great Unwashed conspiracists, with his encouragement, stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop VP Pence confirming the vote and the Democratic victory: an insurrection, said most sensible people, no just high spirits and righteous anger replied the Great Unwashed. Reluctantly, he headed to Florida, with his family and several hundred boxes of classified documents that, by law, belonged to the National Archives not him, still crowing about a stolen election, while his Democratic winner Joe Biden wandered in and tried to clean up the mess.

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And now we have a new Election year, and the reason for the title of this piece. Here is why I worry about America. 

The incumbent, dear old Joe, is 80 and clearly not in the best of health. Not to put too fine a point on it, he is an old man - he will be 81 come Election Day. He stumbles a bit when he walks, and his voice is weaker, sometimes indistinct; increasingly he loses track of what he's trying to say and fumbles his words. There are more and more people worried about his competence to stand for Election, never mind do the job if he wins.

Trump, meanwhile, despite losing a number of high profile court cases, including one for rape and another for property fraud, and facing another 90+ criminal and civil cases of various kinds, all of which in any other country I can think of would disqualify him from any public office from President down to road sweeper or toilet cleaner, and despite using $50m from his campaign funds to pay his legal bills (he is now demanding more donations - and will no doubt get them from his deluded army of Great Unwashed) is running away with the Republication nomination. Oh, and he will be 77 come Election Day.

So Americans must choose between two old men. One is a nice enough old codger, who is smart enough when pushed but increasingly frail and confused, suggestive of some deeper health issues, who, to be brutally honest, may not complete a second term. The other is a thrice (or is now four times? I've lost count) bankrupt serial liar and incompetent businessman, who is also a convicted sex offender, and a conspiracy theorist to boot. 

Biden is at least patriotic, law abiding, with a lifelong devotion to public service, and a love of the US Constitution, although prone to confusion in geopolitics (Sisi is the Egyptian leader, not the Mexican one, to quote one recent glaring error). But he is still a bit sensible, if old......   

But Trump is increasingly losing the plot. His latest pronouncements, suggesting that the NATO edict that an attack on one member state is an attack on all member states is only valid if the attacked state is paying its agreed NATO membership fee (now 2% of GDP or above committed to defence spending): if the state is not doing so ("delinquent" is Trump's favoured term) then he would happily "encourage the aggressor" - widely suggested to be Putin's Russia, based on the Ukraine war - "to do what the he likes" and the US will not interfere. Cue outrage throughout Europe and Democrat America, agreement from the Trumpian Republican Party and, no doubt, cheers and much vodka swilling in the Kremlin, North Korea, China and Iran (amongst other nations who follow Moscow's or Teheran's lead....).

In 2020, after Biden's electoral victory, I think most people expected that Trump would fade away and, in the wake of his failed "insurgency" (or at least his part in it) so would his more extreme supporters too. The Republican Party would purge itself of the Trump Rump and get back to bi-partisan, decently negotiated government.  A new, younger, more global generation would come through to replace the old guard like Trump himself, McConnell, Graham and the rest of the Grey Old Men who have been running the Party for years. The Democrats seemed on the way to doing that already, with a young, black, female VP, Kamala Harris in place to succeed Biden and lead a similar change.

Somehow, it hasn't happened. The GOP remains Trump territory, and all opposition to him has been weeded out, by fair means or foul, and the Grey Old Men are still there, still in place.

Harris remains VP, but has remained strangely silent - presumably out of loyalty - as the concerns about her boss have grown in volume.    The other young guns (to use a rather hackneyed phrase) have fallen by the wayside too.

America clearly has problems. But they are also our problems, the West's (again, a hackneyed expression) problems. Because whoever wins in November will be, as usual, considered the Strongest Man in the world because the economy and military they inherit will still be the strongest in the world. Are either of them, and the parties they lead into power, up to the task? Because the wealth and security of the entire world may well depend on the answer.

This is why I worry about America.