Worrying About America

Knight Foundation

     During the Great Recession, I had written a fair amount the “new normal” and how coming out of the recession the United States was going to be a different country.  By different, I meant something lesser.  If the 20^th Century was the American Century, I was saying that in the 21^st Century, which looked like it was going to be the Chinese Century, we would be more like the United Kingdom (the 19^th Century was theirs) or maybe even Spain or Italy.

I am not sure if that prophecy will manifest in terms of the countries, I thought we might evolve into.  I am sure that we are something lesser than we were.  At a minimum, we are something less than what i believed was our potential.

There are many reasons for this.  My go-to theory was that after World War II, we were the only major industrial country whose manufacturing infrastructure was still intact.  As a result, our economy thrived and the middle class grew and was living so well the idea of the American Dream became more of right than an idea.  The recession from those prosperous times began, in my little mind, with the civil unrest of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and the return to manufacturing competitiveness of Germany and Japan in the 60s and 70s.  Later in the 80s and 90s, we exported a lot of manufacturing to China.  The US is now a country the is polarized between the coastal states and the interior states, urban and rural areas, conservatives and progressives.  We furthermore are immersed in endless arguments about abortion, gender affirming health care of minors, and other issues that are mostly rooted in basic beliefs where one side will never convince the other to change their point of view.

There are theories floated around about us being manipulated by the deep state that just wants to control us or foreign governments that want to undermine our democracy.

As a result, the middle class was squeezed economically.  Through this all, we held on the American Dream.  The Great Recession and then Covid squeezed the middle class more to the point where in the polarized state where ex-presidents are being indicted and the Capital Building was stormed and breeched by a mob upset with results of the last presidential election. 

On the Trump arrest and arraignment for the document in the classified document case, Senator Ted Cruz stated:

I believe it was an abuse of power, and it continues the pattern of weaponizing the Department of Justice and the FBI that has been so brazen under the Biden administration. You know, in the history of our nation, 230 years, we have never seen one administration trying to prosecute and put in jail their predecessor. This has never happened. This is something that banana republics do. It’s something that dictatorships do. It’s not something that America does.

I am not a fan of Ted Cruz, but he is right when he talks about us behaving the way banana republics and dictatorships do.  He is right about weaponizing or politicizing institution government departments and institutions.  Both sides have weaponized governmental institutions.  Given our polarization, this precedent could easily become the norm when a President from the other party is elected.  If the Republics win in 2024, they will undoubtedly prosecute Hunter Biden and maybe Joe if they can make a connection.  It is a worrisome precedent we are starting. 

While we are not colluding or unified in these efforts, the result is that we are essentially working together to become something lesser.