DAVID BOND Jul 23, 2018 The Daily Courier,Kelowna, B.C.,Canada
Many people believe that the current state of affairs stemming from the actions and words of Donald Trump are just an aberration and that the traditional “normal” state will return once he leaves the White House.
I disagree.I think we face a difficult period ahead while we, the U.S. and the rest of the world work at finding a framework that they can tolerate for a decade or more.While Trump campaigned to “Make America Great Again” the simple truth is the sun has set on American greatness.
In part, the fault for this decline lies in the actions taken by Trump himself. At the recent G-7 meeting and the NATO heads of state meeting, Trump trashed America’s allies and subsequently in Helsinki refused to condemn Russia for the well-documented case of direct interference in the U.S. political system.These events effectively ended any trust that democratic nations still had in the word of the U.S. and gave heart to dictators around the globe. It would appear that these despots have nothing to fear from the world’s richest and strongest democracy. Trump has nothing but praise for the likes of Putin, Erdogan of Turkey and Duterte of the Philippines.
Trust is the central ingredient in the operation of a worldwide system founded on the rule of law and renunciation of the use of force to settle disagreements. Trump in both his actions and words has destroyed a belief that the U.S. can be trusted to adhere to existing treaties, be it the nuclear deal with Iran, or the Paris Accord on climate change, or the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership the development of which was led by the U.S. and which would have benefited the U.S. above all.And Trump’s most recent application of tariffs on both allies and China, justified on the basis of ensuring national security is just an obvious example of attempted economic bullying to obtain concessions on trade treaties.Were that not bad enough, his impact upon his own country is equally catastrophic. With the appointment of arch-conservative Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, it is obvious that the cultural wars of the past 40 years will be re-litigated in cases affecting abortion, civil rights, same-sex marriage, limits on voting rights, etc. That, in turn, will yield endless and escalating social turmoil.
Moreover, the inability of Congress to take decisive action on critical legislation from immigration to fiscal rectitude means additional stress on the political fabric of the nation. Issues that should be dealt with in the legislature wind up being settled by the courts.
A fish rots from the head. The president’s chronic inability to speak the truth, his denigration of major law enforcement institutions and non-recognition of the legitimacy of the rule of law and his paranoid tendency to demonize anybody who voices a disagreement with him is attacking the fundamentals of the nation’s social and moral values.With the ossification of the governing process, the U.S. economy will show increasing stress, which will be felt not only domestically but by the rest of the world. What is today the world’s biggest economy will likely stop growing and be superseded by China.That nation, with its decidedly different set of values and system of governance, will not be pushing for global democracy, rule of law and tolerance of diverse opinions.The United States may complain long and loud at the changing world of international governance and trade, but few will listen sympathetically since they brought this mess upon themselves.As is usually the case under such circumstances, Americans will search for scapegoats to assign blame and will fix on anything and anyone but themselves. Canada is sure to be one of the targets, if only because we are next door.
And, the whole world will be a harsher place with reduced co-operation, more belligerent behaviour and a greater risk of war.
--David Bond is a retired bank economist who resides in Kelowna.
Accordinng to Trump the last time America was great was when it still had slavery!
ReplyDeletePresident Donald Trump is different. Unlike any of his forty-four predecessors, he does not even pretend to care about constitutional rules or official protocols. He has no need for facts or norms. And in his drive to “Make America Great Again,” he discards not just the balance of power within our government, but also the deeper balance between our two major myths about what made America great in the first place.In the end, that might be a good thing.The first of those stories tells us that America’s greatness comes from its pioneer spirit, and that making society nicer will weaken the nation and embolden its foes. It centers on the frontier, and began with the seventeenth-century Puritans, who saw themselves as children of light, struggling to claim property and bring piety to the “dark wilderness.” A century later, the Protestant Ulstermen, who had already displaced the people of northern Ireland, seized native lands from Pennsylvania to Georgia. They did so believing that they were the tip of civilization’s spear and that the blood they shed washed away their sins. Around 1800, the French Revolution made the United States seem like the only moral country on Earth. Then Andrew Jackson, a slave-owner and businessman of Ulster background, told Americans that they were not just free but also chosen to take more property from new frontiers. Of course, this is a story about white people, and it lingers like a poison in our body politic.The second story focuses instead on the U.S. Constitution as the starting point for a more lawful society. Among its adherents was Abraham Lincoln, who began his career by condemning the Jacksonians’ wars to expand slavery. (Lincoln was more cautious in attacking slavery itself, which the Constitution implicitly supported.) In this narrative, the Constitution keeps us free by holding our leaders within the law and then expanding it to new groups of Americans, including the non-white victims of the pioneers. Thus President Obama, a Lincoln admirer, urged Americans to “perfect” the Union once again, to carry on the work that the Founders began.For much of our history, these two narratives fed off each other. The Jackson myth told us that we were already good and lawful, and thus entitled to conquer and expand; the Lincoln tradition cautioned that we had to remain good and lawful by honoring the Constitution. Together they gave Americans a deep sense of innocence — of original virtue and pure intentions, of heroic pasts that held all the answers.But that ended on January 20, 2017. Now that America’s innocent self-image helped him win, Trump has no more use for the country’s ideals. The only model he has for the nation is the man in his mirror, who does whatever he wants just because he can. He has driven the frontier approach off its constitutional rails, declaring open season on anyone who does not look and think like he does: Most Americans, as it turns out — along with the rest of the world.
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