FLASH
Shkruar nga Federico Rampini
As America was emerging as a nation, the English historian Edward Gibbon recounted in 1776 the fall of the Roman Empire as an allegory.
A candidate, already convicted in court, was in danger of being killed in an episode characterized by the Secret Service being completely out of line. The other candidate withdrew from the race after a long period of pressure, due to the suspected psycho-physical inability to continue for another term.
A party was forced to reinvent its election campaign 3 months before election day. The new candidate emerges from a long period in the shadows, surrounded by doubts about competence
her. The popularity levels of all public officials are at an all-time low. The assessment of the government and the parliament is weak. But who is responsible for this situation? Who will take charge of the most powerful country on the planet as two wars continue, which threaten to spark a new world war?
Misjudgments
The 2024 election campaign is showing all the flaws of the United States, starting with the dark evil that plagues the oldest liberal democracy: the erosion of trust in institutions and the absence of a spirit of national unity. Both on the left and on the right, the opinion that "America is on the wrong track" prevails.
However, it is the oldest federalist republic in history, an often misunderstood presidential system, with checks and balances that have in the past saved this democracy from extraordinary threats. Including the events of January 6, 2021.
The traumatic attack by a large mob on Capitol Hill had a "happy ending" that was understated in its significance. Sociologist Robert Putnam proposes a surprise game. He starts with a terrible panorama of all the pathologies of America: inequalities, political polarization, racism, tensions over immigration, the weakening of democracy.
When the readers are convinced that they are in front of a description of today's America, the surprise comes: the list is a synthesis of analyzes spread from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. So, an era that was followed by the greatest progress of the USA in all areas: from the economy to social justice, from human rights to education, to building leadership on a planetary scale.
A similar exercise can be done by revisiting the 1960s. In our memories, those years are associated with major progressive movements: black civil rights, pacifism, feminism, gay rights, the environmental movement, student protests, and an explosion of artistic creativity.
In reality, the 1960s were characterized by violence, political and non-political; from a lost war; from faith to national decline, which many Americans considered deserved. Again, after that difficult period, America surprised the world with a renaissance and a long chain of successes: the 1980s were full of economic, technological and cultural triumphs. Until the victory of the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
America in Decline Like the Roman Empire?
History is not destined to repeat itself. However, these precedents should advise us to be cautious before making final judgments about the decline of America and the decay of its democracy. For example, what does migration tell us about the deep reasons for American hegemony?
First America from the Global South, it is much better than its critics think. It is a country that guarantees not only material well-being, but also freedom and rights (including the right to accuse him of any evil).
Many aspirants of the American Dream - including young educated Italians fleeing their country - still find better opportunities here, thanks to faith in businesses and the market, which in their countries of origin is suppressed by bureaucracies or despotisms .
Despite reliable signs that the 21st century is destined to become the "Asian century," it is people from China and India who are continuing to immigrate to the United States, not the other way around. The signs of the degradation of the USA are real, concrete and disturbing: in the foreground is health and longevity; deterioration of the education system.
However, some are precisely related to immigration. These flaws are compensated by as many signs of vitality: continuous innovation; economic dynamism; ability to co-opt elites of other countries, including "enemies". The most disturbing symptom is the decline in self-esteem, which is observed at the highest level among the younger generations.
However, something similar happened at the beginning of the 20th century, then during the Great Depression; and again in the 1960s and 1970s. The harshness with which the American people and the rest of the world judge America every day originates from a hidden attraction: we want it to be a flawless model, a showcase of our values, always in line with ideals that proclaims.
Therefore, it is destined to disappoint us. In this campaign, it is almost impossible to find any "value" common ground between the right and the left, other than a pragmatic compatibility regarding protection against China and the need to re-industrialize the country.
And yet, there is one principle that truly unites Republicans and Democrats: the belief that America's role in the world depends on its inner strength, and its ability to heal itself. As America was emerging as a nation, the English historian Edward Gibbon recounted in 1776 the fall of the Roman Empire as an allegory.
Like Rome, his London perceived itself as the center of a supra-national, globalist and enlightened civilization, as the bearer of a universe of values and with the main mission of exporting them. After her, every power, even if it is post-modern like America, which has given up possession of colonies, begins at a certain point to fear its historical image, that it will end up like Rome.
Migrations and invasions, the decline of civic spirit and the will to fight, the influence of a "pacifist" religion, elite corruption, fiscal and budgetary crises, are some of the main factors mentioned in Gibbon's book, and which seem to be reappear in today's America.
It is possible, and perhaps plausible, that America's weight in the world is destined to decline inexorably. In the end, what we are seeing is extraordinary: this nation of 350 million people exerts a disproportionate influence in many areas on a planet inhabited by 8 billion people.
We Americans make up only 3.5 percent of the world's population. Not even in the time of the Roman Empire was there such an apparent imbalance, an influence of a few people over a very large number of other people. Faced with this fact - which has been going on for a century - you can feel admiration, irritation, surprise or even indignation. But you can never be indifferent./ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Corriere della Sera"
Lini një Përgjigje