The Decline Of America
Introduction
The Decline of America is not meant to be a negative outlook on the state of our country, even though it is filled with the various signs indicating that our nation is on a downward curve. On the contrary, were that the case, the title would be The Decline and Fall of America. So, yes, while there is a litany of problems that I interpret as signs of our national decline, issues that I delineate in the beginning sections, I follow up with some suggestions and solutions to try to counter this trend.
What is important to remember is that the problems discussed did not appear out of a vacuum. There is no specific date or turning point that can be identified, no Pearl Harbor or 9/11 moment that can be determined to be the beginning of this decline. Similarly, there is no simple answer, no single policy change, that will slow or reverse the trend of our national decline.
Change, whether personal or communal, takes, first and foremost, the recognition that change is necessary. That, to me, is the biggest obstacle we need to overcome, for while there is a certain popular philosophy that has emerged in America in the very recent past, its foundation for making America great again is rooted in a false glorification of our past which refuses to acknowledge the prejudices and atrocities that limited opportunity based on race and gender.
The irony is that what truly made America great after World War 2, was a sense of sacrifice that valued long term success, whether for one's children for whom hard work and education were emphasized, or for the nation as a whole which resulted in massive investments in infrastructure improvements. And, more critically, the belief that livable wages for the middle class was the key step towards national prosperity, a concept that resulted in a joint effort by both the government and private sector, a cooperative approach that valued employees first, profit second.
And, not to be ignored, the success of the ideal as engraved on the Statue of Liberty, which embodies America's perceived world wide greatness, that all peoples are welcome to our shores. Despite the xenophobia that seems to be part and parcel to the success of the current populist trend, it was, and is, the diversity of our nation's population, the very fact of our being the melting pot of the world, that helped fuel America's rise to greatness.
Part One: The Challenges
A. All politicians are crooks or worse, elections are rigged
It is rare for a week to go by that I don't hear this comment from someone during a conversation about our government. Generally, I ignore the comment because my efforts in the past to counter this belief were rarely successful.
It is not that I don't acknowledge that far too many of our elected leaders have lost track of who serves whom. All too often, their decisions reflect a desire to stay in office, as opposed to improving the country. And, clearly, there is far too much money flowing from lobbyists and deep pocketed donors, money that ties future successful election victory with current policy.
However, stereotyping all politicians as crooks, alleviates the electorate from making better choices. After all, no politician holds office unless voted there by the constituents. Do we all not have access to all the information we could need to research the candidates running for office?
Last year, my wife and I voted by mail, partially because we knew it was possible that we might be out of town on election day. As it turned out, we were home, but we found that voting by mail was a wonderful way to vote. While voting in person can provide one with the information as to who is on the ballot, it still requires research to find a sample ballot. With mail-in voting, the ballot arrives at your home a month or so before election day, allowing for ample time to research the candidates, to discover which organizations endorse them, or how they have voted in the past if they are the incumbent.
My experience with mail-in voting makes me wonder why any candidate would be against this method of voting, unless, of course, they prefer voters who only make their choice based on TV ads.
Which brings me to political advertisements, and negative ads in particular. Is it any wonder why so many voters believe that all politicians are crooks, when so many ads focus on the negative? If more than half of the ads on both sides tell you why NOT to vote for the other candidate, as opposed to why you SHOULD vote for a particular candidate, it is understandable why voters who do not do their own due diligence (which is most voters) would conclude that they are all crooks.
As for the idea that elections in America are rigged, this is one of the main factors in my original intent to begin this commentary. Frankly, once enough of the electorate believes that voting doesn't matter, democracy is lost. Denying election results leads not only to complacency and lower voter turnout (what's the point) but also allows a populist leader with authoritarian leanings to much more easily convince his/her followers that suspending elections is a patriotic decision to preserve American democracy.
Not in America, you say? We have already seen self proclaimed "patriots" attack the Capitol building in an attempt to alter the results of the 2020 election, so it is far from unrealistic to expect that those same people (and those also convinced that the 2020 election was stolen) would gladly support suspension of elections rather than witnessing another stolen election.
B. The Corporation and the Citizens United Decision
I grouped these two together because they are two sides of the same coin. While businessmen and industry leaders have always used profit as a yardstick for success, a sea change to this calculation occurred when the concept of the corporation evolved from its original purpose of non-profit entities which helped fund and build institutions such as hospitals and universities for the public good, to privately owned organizations that were allowed to own property, enter into contracts and be held responsible for its actions.
This evolution was not in itself, a problem, as it addressed a number of legal and economic issues that sometimes stood in the way of the changing landscape of industry, capitalism and innovation.
It was the progression of judicial rulings that began to equate other rights originally assigned to the citizens to these corporations. And further, the removal of responsibility for the individuals who made bad and illegal choices which allow them to hide behind the corporation, and far too often, escape responsibility for these bad and illegal actions. In effect, those at the top of the corporation were allowed to reap all the benefits of the corporation's success while avoiding all the negative consequences when the corporation failed or broke the law.
Then, with the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision which reversed decades old federal law which prohibited corporations (and unions) from making donations (expenditures) in connection with federal elections, the floodgates were opened. Corporations, especially so called non-profit organizations such as Citizens United, were now allowed to funnel large sums of money into elections. So, not only did this expose our elections to even more large donor and special interest influence, it equated money with free speech, which, in essence, legally supported the idea that the more money one has, the more free speech one has as well.
C. Grievance politics by the privileged, and religious freedom defined as the freedom to discriminate
Many pundits say that grievance politics is the last resort of those who lack strong policy ideas. I find that most of the battles currently being waged by those claiming religious intolerance fall into the category of grievance politics, which is why I have linked these two topics.
Religious freedom is certainly a bedrock of our country. But there seems to be a disconnect between the protections that religious freedom guarantees, and the use of this freedom to justify and legalize prejudices. We forget (or purposefully ignore), that there are two parts to the First Amendment as it relates to this critical freedom.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. While that second part, not prohibition of its free exercise that is most often cited, it is the first part, that Congress shall make no law which establishes a national religion, that eludes them.
Contrary to the current populist view that America is a "Christian" country which leads some to reject any other religion as not American, it is possible to understand and apply two thoughts at once in regards to this issue. While we certainly have a Judeo-Christian history embedded in our foundational documents, that doesn't equate to religious intolerance of other belief systems. Similar to the fact that we are a melting pot of ancestry, so too are we a melting pot of religious tenets and guidelines.
There is an arrogance at work by those who believe their version of Christianity is better than other religions, Christian or other wise. While I am fine with true believers thinking their version of God and religion is best for them, in fact I admire those with such strong faith, they lose some of my respect when they insist that all other religions are wrong, and that their way is the only way to heaven.
Frankly, I don't think it is even a debate to say that throughout history, more people have been killed by religious wars, an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Grievance politics also has a huge presences in race relations, on both sides, although it boggles my mind when white people, especially white men, attempt to convince me how oppressed they are in today's society. Never mind our history of slavery, and the fact that it took another 100 years after Lincoln's emancipation proclamation for the Civil Right Act to eliminate all the odious laws that were enacted to keep the Black man in his place. Or that white men have garnered the most benefits, and the least obstacles to opportunity and success throughout American history for no other reason that they were born that way.
So, the fact that there has been some push back in the last few decades, that women and minorities are gaining positions of authority in business and politics, especially as that some of that gain has been through affirmative action policies, does not justify this new perception of the aggrieved white man suffering under the yoke of systemic "reverse" discrimination. Sadly, some the the most vocal advocates of this misguided form of grievance politics are extremely rich white guys, poor fellows.
Make no mistake, by whatever economic or social measurement one can cite, being born a white male in America grants immeasurable advantage over every other demographic. It isn't even close.
Check out this story I wrote quite a while ago concerning this topic.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-switch-back.html
D. Lack of compromise and cooperation
Sometimes I wish we had three or more strong/popular political parties in America rather than two. Multiple party systems generally require cooperation or coalitions between two or more parties to pass legislation since there is usually no party with a majority. With two dominant parties, sometimes when one holds both houses of Congress and the White House, bipartisanship is not necessary to create laws and policy. But this is rarely the case, and usually for not long.
For instance, during Ronald Reagan's eight years and George Bush's four years as President, the House was controlled by the democrats. Clinton had two years of Democratic control of both houses, the remaining six years both houses of Congress were GOP run.
Obama also had only two years out of eight when his party controlled both houses of Congress, Trump had two out of four as did Biden.
So, in the last 44 years, only Bush 2 was blessed with the luxury of having control of Congress in the hands of his party for four years, and those years were not consecutive.
In other words, we need the parties to compromise and cooperate in order to do the important work of governing our country. And, while there was certainly disagreement and partisan bickering for our entire history, the lack of cooperation has now reached dizzying heights.
We saw that in full display when, after months of negotiation between Senators from both parties and the White House, the first serious immigration proposal in a decade was created, but it was soon scuttled, in part, because certain members of the GOP did not want to give Biden a win on one of his weakest positions.
Don't get me wrong, both parties engage in such party first, country second thinking, I note this particular instance because immigration is one of our most pressing problems, yet no solutions are offered due to partisan politics.
If our founders had not managed to come together and iron out their differences, there would not have been a Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights. Those austere men were dramatically at odds over a number of issues, but put aside their contrasting viewpoints to create two incredible documents.
Country first, or America first, is a popular proclamation these days, but is is certainly not being demonstrated in the halls of Congress.
Democracy requires us to cooperate and compromise to solve our mutual problems, to look at such deals as win-win, both sides getting something they want which each truly believes will improve America. Unfortunately, voting against the other parties proposal just to make them look bad, even if the policy would improve our country, has become the norm in this bitter partisan environment.
E. The demonization of immigrants
Of all the indicators of our decline, this is the one that irritates me the most. I would imagine that millions of Americans visit the Statue of Liberty every year, as well as millions of foreign born tourists, to see that beautiful statue and read those inspiring words of welcome to the world.
Yet we daily read and hear of politicians and pundits who claim that those coming to America are, not only criminals, but not worthy of the benefits and opportunities that the United States has provided immigrants for its entire history.
What is really frustrating, is that those kinds of statements emanate from first and second generation Americans, people whose own ancestors faced discrimination and abuse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The worst perpetrator of this vitriol is only a first generation American himself who has married two foreign born women, the second whom was granted citizenship after marrying him, and who then used the concept of chain migration to get her parents into America.
There are numerous studies which indicate that immigrants, legal and illegal, commit less crimes per capita than native born Americans while being more likely to be a victim of crime due to their reluctance to be exposed to immigration status questions.
Still, along with those media sources that have deep prejudice against those with darker skin, we are daily bombarded with stories of crime that the minority of immigrants commit.
As an American from Italian descent, I often try to counter such prejudice with the question of the Mafia, and its stereotypical relationship to my ancestors. When I ask if every Italian American should be expelled due to the existence of the Mafia, most say no, yet they are on board with the incredibly horrific concept that we should round up and deport every undocumented person within our borders.
It is both exasperating and befuddling that so many people believe and repeat such assertions about today's immigrants, yet the trend is increasing, not lessening.
There are a host of countries in the world that severely restrict foreign born people from entering or becoming citizens. Most of them are struggling with maintaining replacement birth rates, and are facing real challenges to having enough people to work.
We have a real immigration problem, have allowed too many people enter the country illegally, do not have the public infrastructure to provide the opportunities these people seek.
But demonizing them is not the answer. In fact, an adult and humane approach to immigration, as was exhibited by America for those who came here 100 years ago, can help us solve other problems we face, such as the insolvency of Social Security and labor shortages, especially in blue collar and entry level job industries.
F. Suicide by guns and drugs
Depending on the resource you access, about 100,000 Americans died at their own hands in the last two years, 2022 thru 2023, over 50,000 of those deaths were through the use of firearms.
During those same two years, over 200,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, upwards of 80% of them from opioids.
Now, obviously, there is overlap in those numbers, as some drug overdose deaths are with the intent of suicide, although some might argue that drug abuse is at least an indicator of a mental health problem, if not evidence of a desire to end one's life.
Regardless of the details of such an extreme decision, to kill oneself, to me the driving force behind such a choice is lack of hope. So, while there are hundreds of thousands of people traversing difficult terrain while risking physical harm, to migrate to the United States, there are tens of thousands natural born Americans who seek to end their lives.
The truly sad part of this situation is that rather than focusing on why so many Americans choose destructive behavior, why so many veterans commit suicide, or why so many young people turn to drugs to avoid a reality which they abhor, there is far less emphasis on access to mental health education and assistance, and far too much blame and energy extended to pretending that our shared mental health crisis can be blamed on China, or drug cartels or illegal immigrants.
As if true of so many of our cultural ills, we choose to find some external boogeyman rather than looking at our own cultural flaws which drive people to lose hope, whether those flaws be pressure to succeed, or fit in, or to merely be accepted when one's choices are not considered "normal" or worse, godly.
G. Environment
While it may be difficult for those born in this century to understand how our climate has changed, (although, paradoxically, some of our environment's strongest advocates are under 24 years old), it must seem obvious to the rest of us, especially us boomers, to agree that winters are more mild, summers more dry, and storms more severe. As was made famous by Les Nessman at WKRP in Cincinnati, who looked out the window to "witness" the weather, we are all witnesses to how weather has changed in the last five decades.
The fact that actual scientists are able to document what we have experienced, who can provide the actual data to confirm what has occurred, whether that evidence demonstrates the melting and receding of the glaciers, or the sea level rise which had caused some island communities to disappear, or the simple fact of record breaking high temperatures all around the globe, proves that there is ample evidence that the Anthropocene Epoch has begun.
Yet, amazingly, there are political leaders who continue to deny the obvious, and business leaders who selfishly put their own interests above those of their fellow citizens. While it can said that there are other western countries with powerful groups who are vocal in their disputation of climate change, it is America's climate change deniers that have an out sized effect on the lack of progress here and abroad.
This is just one of the many examples of a shift away from the belief in science, a truly amazing occurrence considering how America was inspired by a young president only 60 years ago to put a man on the moon despite the fact that we didn't have the science in place to maintain a proper orbit above our planet, let alone traverse to another body in space.
H. Infatuation with a "strong" leader followed by a decline in trust in our political and judicial institutions
In mentioning the reduced belief of science and fact based policies, I did not speculate on what the movement is that is replacing such logic and research. One of the easier and obvious answers is the infatuation with a "strong" leader who alone can fix all our problems.
But first, this infatuation must have been primed by a general distrust in the institutions of our government. This has been ongoing for quite a while, fueled in part by the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of the president, by the economic philosophy of allowing the rich to run rampant in expectation of a trickle down shared wealth with the middle class, and even with the expansive programs that tried to help the least among us but failed to address that those in the middle were being ignored.
Then, forty years later when the poor were only marginally better off while the middle class was losing its buying power, rather than blaming the rich who diverted our country's resources to their coffers, we bought into their propaganda that it was the poor, or the immigrant, or the government that was to blame. Anyone but those who actually controlled the resources and who used their burgeoning wealth to influence those making the rules via unregulated campaign donations.
And so, primed for a savior from our incompetent governmental leaders, and the "others" that are taking our jobs and committing untold atrocities, we latch onto someone that confirms our belief that everything was better in the past, and that by returning to the times when minorities knew their place, women were second class citizens, and nothing bad happened because God loved us best, we sacrifice our common sense, and values.
There is no better example of this than those who insist that everything was better four years ago. Do they not remember thousands of Americans dying every day from Covid, hospitals overwhelmed with the sick and dying, supply chain problems that made toilet paper a luxury?
Presidents are defined by how they handle a crisis. Covid was the crisis for Trump, recovering from Covid and its lingering issues was Biden's.
The mortality rate for the United States from Covid during Trump's last year in office was one of the worst in the world. His lack of a coherent, nationwide program to reduce the spread of the disease, led to the deaths of a few hundred thousand Americans, and encouraged all sorts of misinformation to spread about the disease itself and possible interventions to reduce hospitalizations.
He prioritized his legacy over lives, sowed doubt in our national trust of the scientific community, and placed the economy over those most vulnerable to harm. He avoided the hard decisions, ones that would have been less popular, instead pretending that it was up to the states to decide what was best, a policy that ultimately pitted one state against the other.
Ironically, those who agreed with him, those who actively fought the ideas of social distancing and wearing masks, traded their misguided belief in personal freedom for their own health, and that of their family and neighbors.
While our mortality rate improved once vaccines became available, America still had a rate in the bottom 10% of the world due to followers of the ex-president's now prevalent distrust of the science behind those vaccines.
Biden, on the other hand, embraced the science and pushed hard for a national roll out of vaccines early in his term. He also was able to create enough bipartisanship to pass monetary help for regular, everyday Americans which helped our economy avoid a recession. While inflation was a world wide consequence after the supply chain disruptions and labor shortages coming out of Covid, the United States has recovered much quicker than most other western nations. GDP exceeds most of our peers, inflation has fallen as fast or faster, and unemployment, which dropped below 4% for over two years, first time in sixty years, was also one of the better rates in the world.
So, two parts of the same crisis, one of the worst mortality rates during Trump's presidency, one of the best recoveries during Biden's.
In the meantime, a country invades another sovereign nation, and Trump praises its leader, while Biden condemns him and works tirelessly to create a coalition to defend the nation under attack.
And yet, to this day, there are voters who prefer someone who lauds dictators and is willing to sacrifice the people of a fledgling democracy.
Someone who repeatedly claims our elections are rigged because he lost, our judicial system is politicized because he is being held accountable for his crimes, and that our jury system is corrupt because, well, I guess because he was found guilty.
Which brings us to
I. Selfishness
I have asked this question in previous posts and of my friends and family; are we, and by extrapolation America itself, more selfish now than in quite a while, perhaps since the roaring twenties from 100 years ago?
One can say that it is tradition to complain about the selfishness of the younger generation. I generally push back against people who say today's young men and women are lazy, or don't want or work. I try to remind them of our irresponsible behavior when we were young. Our focus on the next party or weekend activity. Our engagements with distractions, both legal and illegal.
Still, I believe we have entered an age of rampant selfishness, but I blame the boomers, of which I am one, not the young. It is the boomers who have fallen for the false narrative that everything was wonderful in the 70's and 80's even though basic research proves that inflation was horrible for much of those decades, crime was much higher, and civil unrest, led by minority communities that were tired of American freedoms being denied them due to race was often displayed on the nightly news.
And, contrary to the grievance policies that are encouraging white males to push back on the gains that have been achieved by women and minorities, white men are still flexing their muscles by creating odious reproductive restrictions which are killing young women.
And the ultimate sign of selfishness is that millions of Americans are willing to trade women's reproductive freedoms, willing to sacrifice an entire nation to the unlawful invasion by Putin, willing to stand by while our planet continues to cry out for saner environmental policies, willing even to let democracy fall by the wayside, all for cheaper gas and lower egg prices. This me first attitude, which is an extension of the ill advised America first mantra, is the penultimate driver to what ails our nation.
Is there hope? Can we reverse this trend, halt the gradual decline we are enmeshed in?
In The Decline of America: Part Two, I will pose some suggestions and possible solutions.
