A Sad Portrait Of Our New “Great” America
Read Time:7 Minute, 16 Second
by Bill Formby
There must be a historical parallel somewhere that comes close to what is happening in America today, but I am not sure I remember it, or remember reading about it, except perhaps during the era of the so called great Roman empire during the times of Nero and Caligula.
Like our current leader Nero and Caligula were narcissists extraordinaire and cared little for what people thought. But that was long ago and brutality was a way of getting and holding power. In more modern times we could look to Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini but even they were not screw ups. Hitler was simply a madman with delusions of his own greatness, check. Stalin was simply all powerful and no one was to question him, check, as was Mussolini, check. Not great role models for democracy.
I have been given this some thought, and maybe what we are missing is simply a definition problem with the word great and how it applies to Trump’s view of what America would look like as “great again.” The term implies that at some point America was great by some standard so all we have to do is figure out what standard he is using. So let’s give it a shot. I think we can rule out the early colonial days because we were under British Rule and King George would certainly take credit for any measure of greatness we exhibited. Then after the revolution we were a nation in which human being were being used as livestock to work their plantations. Even the so called leaders and founding fathers were in on that, but we were becoming prosperous, so maybe that is the measure.
But, then again, we decided that at least half the Americans did not agree, which might be classified as a good thing, but them the other half agreed with maintaining slaves, so maybe not so much. Then, we have a big fight, you know, among this family nation, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people on both sides. I don’t think that would put us in good standing with a group measuring greatness. So we look to after the Civil War when we moved further west and captured land from the free people we now call Native Americans. After all, they were not using all of the land anyway and there were resources there that they did not know exactly how to use. But, here again, it was not like we went out and negotiated a fair price and bought it fair and square, we took in the most brutal ways we could. We wiped out their food supply on the great plains and sent out army out to round them up and tell them what they could have and could not have. I am not sure that would endear us the the Nobel peace prize people either.
So we rambled on and became a wealthy nation, for some, and a powerful nation if we consider military might as criteria for being great. But then we still had problems in our country that we had not come to grips with as we moved along. While we have freed the slaves, which was a good thing, we, and I point primarily of those in the South, were not real crazy about them actually joining society. We also had this thing about seeing women as complete people until about a hundred years ago. Similarly, as this nation grew every immigrant has had to fight their way to any level of respectability. Whether it was the Irish, the Italians, the Spanish or the Pollacks they were all treated with equal disdain. But they did have an advantage, they were all Caucasian, so the Blacks and Hispanics still stood out because of skin color and they were easy to target. The Jews and the Catholics also caught their share of hell as well and this carried well into the 20th century and still persists today, just not as openly. So, depending on our view of greatness, we were still wandering like the Hebrews in the desert.
Now, one would think that as we move into the 21st century we would have worked this out, but it doesn’t yet seem that we have. But, here again, it depends on one’s view of what defines greatness as a nation. We are still probably the wealthiest nation on earth. That is a plus. We are still the strongest militarily on earth, that’s another plus. But does this equal great and exceptionalism. I am not sure. We can not seem to get our educational problems worked out since we are still ranked 20th in the world or higher in our illiteracy level and knowledge in math and science. No one can seem to agree on how this can be corrected because there are still people who think the world was created by a single entity in seven days. They think this is what our children should be taught despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary. Getting a good education depends on where a child is born and raised. If it is in a progressive city that has a good strong tax base, then the chances are good that the child will have a good opportunity for a good education. If the child is born and raised in a rural area that is relatively poor and the parents are not well off, the chances are not good for a decent education. Thus, we lag in this department compared to the rest of the world.
Well, maybe education is not everything. How about infant mortality rates. Surely, with all the hoopla about the United States having the best health care in the world we have the lowest infant mortality rate. Ahhh, afraid not. The U.S. ranks 169th worst in the world in the category with a rate of 5.8 per 100,000 population. Compare that to Monaco that averages 1.8, or Macau at 3.1. We can also look to France, Spain, and Italy with those God awful national health plans with 3.3 infant deaths per 100,000. So I’m not sure we are such hot stuff after all, given our wealth. Ok, but we are the most civilized right? Once again, a problem with the definition: the U. S. has 5%, roughly of the world’s population, but we have 25% of the people in the world who are incarcerated plus of all of the so called civilized nations we are the only one that still has the death penalty. Still, we are considered to be one of the most violent nations on the planet. That does not seem to add up.
So, I am back to definitions again. Exactly what is it that makes us the greatest nation on earth. There are a number of markers which I did not go into but time is of the essence here. I know there is a belief that it is so just as there is a belief that this nation was founded on Christian principles, which, one again, is wrong. Don’t get me wrong. I am an American and proud of my country most of the time. I served my country and I wish everyone would have that same experience. I belief there is a unique experience being an American, but are we the greatest. Nah. We are struggling with an identity crisis. Just take a look at what we call the American Culture and what we celebrate. We celebrate one day that is devoted solely to the nation as a whole. The rest are to various factions of the population. We have a president’s day, a day for a civil rights leaders birthday, at least two days or more (depending on how you classify Thanksgiving) for Christian Holidays, a day that is supposed to celebrate workers on Labor Day, and several days in different regions for various leaders. Figure out how that equals a truly American Culture. We may get there one day, but I am afraid that we are still far too young as a country and we have never been truly tested to see if our values hold up. The closest we came was on 9/11/2001 and most all of our beliefs about what was good, moral, and just, especially where torture was concerned, went right out the window. And, now, we have a president who does not understand even the few basic tenets of what it means to be president let alone uphold the principle that no one is above the law. So, will we become great? Let’s check back in another 200 years and see what we have learned.
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I think of all the waves of immigrants now integrated into American culture and economy, but when you move away from European immigrants, not so much. There was always a tremendous fear, loathing and resistance to “mixing” the races and although in the case of African slaves there was a lot of it, there’s still a real fear. I sometimes wonder how much of the hatred for Obama was because he was identified as black and how much because he was half white.
How about a lot of it. Much of that can be pointed in the direction of Mitch McConnell the Majority leader in the Senate. His now infamous words, before Obama even took office, “Our job is to make sure he is a one term president” rang throughout the halls of congress. Racism has been alive and well all along but Obama’s election brought it to the surface again. It was the focal point of Trump’s “birther” charges along with alleged Muslim ties of his father.
According to the book The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry by Ned & Constance Sublette, the prevailing opinion even among fervent Northern abolitionists was to either “repatriate” freed slaves to Africa (a place from which most of them were several generations removed) or to give them their own state somewhere out West. There was little sentiment for actually incorporating the former slaves into general society in either the North or the South.
That was one of many surprising things I found out by reading that book.
Dead on there E.A.. In fact the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence had to be omitted because that is what Jefferson proposed. He did not think that the slaves were “equal”. But, those in the South fought hard enough to get that excluded because it would have been a financial disaster for them.
I’m taking this as a book recommendation :-). I just purchased it in audio format. No guarantees as to when I’ll be able to read it (or listen to it); I have over 2 1/2 years worth of audiobooks… (Cheaper and not as unhealthy an addiction than/as drugs…)