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AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP Umair-Haque: 2022 Was the Year America Came Back — While the World Fell Apart ... The Year in Politics Was About — Surprisingly — America Beginning to Lead a Troubled World Out of Decline 
Image Credit: Ground Picture Original article: https://eand.co/2022-was-the-year-america-came-back-while-the-world-fell-apart-4354461fdd4d Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Hopefully 2021 was the beginning of the end for Donald Trump ... and the beginning of the beginning for American political sanity. Thank you, Umair, for acknowledging the remarkable accomplishments of President Biden in the last two years. He did not have a strong hand with only a razor thin majorities in the Congress, but in spite this I have observed that the legislative accomplishments of his administration have been truly remarkable ... perhaps at a level not see since President Eisenhawer with the Interstate Highway System and President Johnsom with the Great Society and related legislation. To add to this, President Biden and the Democrats did not suffer a 'Red Wave' in the mid-term elections, and while they narrowly lost the majority in the House did not lose the Senate majority as was widely expected. As regards Trump and his MAGA talk, the 2022 election was something of a disaster with only a very few of his endorsed candidates winning. A lot of MAGA supporters like the idea of American Greatness, but have given up on Trump being serious about what needs to be done. In my own conversations about US politics, I am referring less to the problem of the 'left' versus the 'right', but much more about the control of everything by the rather small but very powerfulo 'top' and the huge but essentially powerless 'rest-of-us'. For a long time I have been aware that the massive amount of 'money in politics' is coming from the very wealthy 'right' and the very wealthy 'left' and essentially the very wealthy Peter Burgess | ||
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2022 Was the Year America Came Back — While the World Fell Apart
The Year in Politics Was About — Surprisingly — America Beginning to Lead a Troubled World Out of Decline Written by Umair Haque December 23rd. 2022 2022 will be remembered as a remarkable year in the world politically. Why? Because it was the year that — defying everyone’s expectations — America came back, while the world fell apart. Now, it might not seem to many people like America’s coming back quite yet — hey, my life is still tenuous!! Things aren’t exactly great! True — and we’ll discuss that, too. But in the eyes of history, through the lens of societies rising and falling? 2022 was a year of turning points, and one of those, a great and grave one, was political. The year in politics, then, briefly, went like this. America began to emerge as a leader again — in three specific ways: economically, democratically, and socioculturally. That was so shocking, so unexpected, that nobody much was prepared for it — because American decline had been taken more or less for granted around the globe, and even by Americans themselves. Meanwhile, the world went into a tailspin — from fascism to looming recession to making less than no progress on climate change. In that context, America’s comeback is especially remarkable, because it’s singular. Let’s discuss all that a little bit, beginning with the “nobody expected it” part. So shocked were Europe’s leaders by America’s comeback that they began to do something that Europe hasn’t done since before the last World War. They copied America. What do I mean by that? Much of the responsibility for America’s comeback should be laid at Biden’s door. His economic agenda — building things the world needs, like microchips and clean energy and manufacturing — came as an electric shock to European leaders, who are at this moment busy trying to imitate it. Let me put that in context. Like I said, Europe hasn’t copied America since before the last World War. That’s how big this is. Europe went its own way — a decidedly non-American one on, well, everything. It decided to have expansive social contracts, where everyone would get public healthcare, high-speed rail, good media, affordable education. It put in place stringent, demanding standards for everything from food to finance. And because of all that, European social democracy prospered — while the American model of oligopolistic “free markets,” coupled with a neoliberal social contract, where everything had to be bought from a profit-maximizing corporation, from healthcare to transport, failed spectacularly. Europe and America, at this juncture in history, couldn’t be more different politically, and that’s because after World War II, their political choices diverged sharply, Europe building the social democracies it became renowned for, America hewing to the theoretical utopias of neoliberalism, in which everyone was to be a competitor, rival, adversary. So for Europe to be spluttering at how outrageous this is — well, it’s a little bit funny. European leaders are shocked that Bidenomics means investing in things like factories and selecting specific industries for development in order to build a thriving export base once again, all of which is completely, totally against the laissez-faire rules of neoliberalism. Not in a mean way, just in the sense that it’s so unusual. They know — from Macron, who’s Europe’s de facto leader at this point — on down to the European Parliament itself — that Bidenomics promises to be revolutionary, which is why they’re copying it. They’re the ones behind the curve now. Now. Bidenomics, a year ago, could have been dismissed as another DC bridge to nowhere that’d never see the light of day — would any of it ever actually happen? And while you wouldn’t know about it from reading America newspapers, because they won’t cover it, the first of the microchip factories is already beginning operation, just this month. So America’s economic transformation into a world leader again is beginning to actually happen — at light speed. That’s even more remarkable — not just the vision or agenda of being a leader, but actually making it happen. Bidenomics isn’t getting nearly enough credit for this, and yet it’s a tremendous accomplishment — all you have to do is look at the EU desperately racing to catch up for the first time in seventy years. And yet it’s just a first step. When I say that “Bidenomics promises to be revolutionary,” I don’t mean it’s going to happen overnight. But it is beginning to happen, and major political figures like Macron have noticed for a reason. That reason is this: Bidenomics is about rebuilding America’s export base. The EU, like America, is, at the moment, a net importer. In yesterday’s world, where you could endless commodities for peanuts from poor countries, because the planet hadn’t yet its limits, that was — even if morally questionable — economically just fine: you could still grow an economy that way. But in this world? Where the planet has hit its limits? And now prices are skyrocketing at frightening paces, precisely because we can’t supply our civilization with the basics — food, water, electricity, all the things made from fossil fuels, from plastics to medicines — at nearly the same level of cheap abundance? Having a consumption-based economy in which you’re importing everything you need is a recipe for utter disaster. That’s a lot to take in, and it’s meant to be. Transformations on that scale take decades to really happen. Imagine an America that’s the world’s pre-eminent supplier of clean manufacturing and energy and so forth, not to mention microchips. Of course it’s not going to happen overnight, if only for the simple reason that we don’t even know how to make everything from fertilizer to the plastic stuff you buy on Amazon without boiling the planet. We have no idea, as a civilization, how to make the basics we need in a non-destructive, non-harmful way. But we have to figure it out, or else it’s light out. Our civilization goes into a Dark Age, fast. Bidenomics is that big. Don’t misinterpret me. I’m not saying “Joe Biden’s saving the world!! He’s Hari Seldon, here to resurrect human civilization, like in Asimov’s Foundation!” Nope. Of course the story’s not that simple. If you want a superhero movie, go watch Superman. But I am saying that America’s coming back to life, and leading the world again, and the stakes really are as big as the future of civilization versus a Dark Age. Now. On another level, it’s mildly ridiculous to put it that way. Because, well, America’s still got a lot of problems. A lot. And in many ways, it’s a far less civilized place than Europe, which is renowned for everything from the quality of its basics to the expansive and warm social attitudes of its people. But that’s changing, too. Let’s talk about attitudes and democracy now for a second. What happened to the world in 2022? Well, America rejected its fascists. Resoundingly. Again, to its own surprise, and to the world’s. It shattered Trumpism during the midterms, and then sent a message to the Supreme Court that Americans considered it illegitimate when it took away womens’ rights. But Europe? Europe embraced its fascists. That’s a generalization, of course. But nowhere, really, in Europe, did we see the kind of rout that took place in America’s midterms. In some European nations, like Italy and Sweden, fascism actually ascended to the heights of power. Think about that for a second. These are mature social democracies. And they embraced fascism? Something is very, very wrong there. For nations to embrace fascism tells us that social attitudes are changing, fast. And you can see that taking place in Europe, too. It’s true that Europe has problems with certain groups of immigrants who refuse to accept and live by European values. But none of the Big Lies Europe’s resurgent fascists tell are remotely true — that there’s a “Great Replacement” of “real” Europeans, that immigrants are taking their jobs, that Europe itself is under some kind of existential threat. Come on, Europe’s been European for centuries now — it’s hardly likely to fall at the hands of a few neighborhoods of poor fanatics. The paranoid fantasy is as absurd as it is implausible, which is why it has to be blown up to comic-book sized proportions to really scare people in the first place. European social attitudes are growing more illiberal, more intolerant, more aggressive and paranoid and hostile, fast. For nations like Sweden and Italy to embrace political parties who do things like overtly admire Mussolini (LOL, Mussolini) and trace their root backs to literal Nazi officers can mean nothing else, really, nor can the way the European far right rises faster and further by the year. That’s in stark, stark contrast to America. Where attitudes have changed profoundly. So profoundly that many Americans, living amidst this change, don’t even really notice it. But what else does it mean when a nation like America resoundingly rejects Trumpism — because of the Big Lies it tells? Scorning paranoid fantasies — “critical race theory” is going to get your kids!! Gay people are going to make them…gay!! Women are meant to be baby-making machines!! The election was stolen!! Only hate and bigotry and xenophobia can save you!! Americans turned their backs on a set of social attitudes. It took a while, and that’s OK — because nobody learns anything complex and important overnight, really. But Americans changed. As people — what they want for themselves and everyone else. A few years ago, the average American could have been said to believe the Big Lies, and be governed, basically, by hate and paranoid fantasies, in which his or her life would only get better if some poor scapegoat’s got much, much worse. But Americans don’t seem to believe that anymore — or at least enough of them don’t that they rejected that worldview in the elections. They are changing. Growing wiser, maturing. That is a remarkable — a genuinely remarkable — thing to witness. Like I said, Americans themselves often don’t notice. But people like me? Who go back and forth between Europe and America a lot? We do. You can feel it in everyday interactions now. Americans are far gentler to each other, warmer than they’ve ever been. There’s a ways to go yet, but they are rebuilding social capital, social ties, social bonds. But in Europe, precisely the opposite is happening. Europeans are beginning to believe the kinds of Big Lies that Americans have turned their backs on — basically, the idea that for their lives to get better, some scapegoat’s has to get worse. Refugee, immigrant, woman — doesn’t matter, because it’s a Big Lie to begin with. As a result, Europe is beginning to feel like it’s about to have the kind of implosion of social bonds that characterized America in the 1990s. Social capital, trust between groups and among people, social ties — all these things are withering, as the far right exploits a precarious economy to divide people into the hateful and the hated, with a silent majority in the middle. That, too, is a remarkable thing to observe — this time, a grim one, not a happy one. Europe’s mature social democracies are the most sophisticated societies that have existed in human civilization, period. To see that even they’re not immune from, protected again, resurgent fascism — it’s frightening, but more than that, it’s chilling. Because of course it’s repeating the mistakes of history. Fascism’s resurgent around the globe — from Russia to India and beyond — but Europe, especially, should have remembered how it ended last time around. To see Europe — and Europeans — changing in this way, becoming more intolerant, illiberal, hostile, aggressive, angry, divided…it’s tragic. Because as Europe faces a kind of American-style decline, into resurgent fascism and economic stagnation, much is lost. This is a complex thought, and it’s the message of 2022, politically, so now let me try to express it as best I can. Europe is still the pinnacle of our civilization. America has a long way to go before it reaches European standards of living. But now, thanks to its embrace of the far right, European living standards are poised to decline, hard and fast — while America’s are going to begin to rise, thanks to Bidenomics. So there’s a strange situation we face. America’s rising, while Europe’s declining. Europe’s declining from a higher peak, while America’s ascending from a lower one. Where will they cross? Think of two climbers on a mountain, one falling downwards, the other, picking himself up after the fall, and beginning to scale the peak again. This is where Europe and America are. And it’s a sight we haven’t witnessed in modern history, because since the last World War, well, Europe raced ahead of America. But that is now changing, and it’s changing fast. Now. The average America hasn’t really felt the effects of what I’ve discussed here yet. American life is still brutal, difficult, tenuous. You get up and go to a job you hate to make not even enough money to ever pay off your lifelong debts. You live in a constant, perpetual state of all the symptoms of trauma and shock, from hypervigilance to panic. Nothing you do is ever enough, and everything you ever build seems to be made of sand. And when that happens to a people, how can they ever really build social bonds or ties? Thus, economic decline foreshadows political collapse. The point is that all that can now change. Could and should change, let me say. If Bidenomics fulfills its promise, then American life really will be different. An America of plentiful good jobs, stable ones, is also one with a thriving middle class, which is what democracy needs to function well, not people in heart-stopping perpetual panic, many of whom are going to end up believing Big Lies, in their confusion and despair. A society like that, too can afford an expansive social contract — with healthcare and education and transport for all — because it’s more economically prosperous, too. Europe’s problem is the opposite now: as a net importer, it’s struggling to keep on affording its expansive social contract, which only fascist tensions — “those dirty immigrants shouldn’t have healthcare! I won’t pay for educating their kids!!” So again, Europe and America find themselves crossing paths now. All that’s what the point of making America a net exporter again really is. To resuscitate it in these deep ways. To make it the kind of society with a real middle class again. That can afford democracy as a necessity, not a luxury. Only that kind of society can afford an expansive, modern social contract, in which basics are public for all. Europe’s wiser minds, like Macron, are desperately copying Bidenomics precisely because they see it could be the answer to Europe’s woes — fiscal shrinkage, economic deterioration, a middle class grimacing in pessimism, an inability to go on providing just that social contract it became renowned for, all of which ends up with the loss of democracy at the hands of fanatics and lunatics — too. They understand that just as it promises to turn America into a society something much more like Europe in its heyday, so, too, it’s a set of idea so smart that they could fuel another era of European prosperity, too. 2022 will be remembered for all that. If Bidenomics goes on to fulfill its promise? History will remember 2022 as the year everything changed — that we laid the foundations for a New Industrial Revolution, and the planet maybe, just maybe, didn’t have perish. It will think of 2022, too, as the year that Europe, ignoring its own stagnation too long, finally entered once-uniquely American forms of collapse — neglected, downwardly mobile classes embracing fascism as the answer to their imploding lives. And as all that begins to happen, it’ll probably remember 2022, too, as the year Americans — enough of them — changed. Rejected the lunacy and folly and craziness — and demanded sanity. Better lives, real solutions, positive agendas, to all their problems — not just scapegoats and hate and violence. Big changes, then. And more, of course, in a decade like this, are to come. Umair Haque December 2022
| The text being discussed is available at | https://eand.co/2022-was-the-year-america-came-back-while-the-world-fell-apart-4354461fdd4d and |