Democracy As We Knew It

Democracy as We Knew It

When I was born in 1954, the United States with its $390B in GDP, represented 7.23% of global GDP. In 1954 we were the beacon of democratic light. We had just saved the free world from the horrors of Fascism that had spread from Germany to Italy and Spain and was blooming in its own Asian version in Japan. We can’t even talk about Latin America in those days since it was for the most part an array of petty dictatorships and Juntas that would agree to anything if there was a buck in it as there was for taking in the Fascists running from Europe for cover. We were heading up and willingly funding the lion’s share of NATO to keep the world free from the growing threat of the latest brand of post-Stalin totalitarianism as Russia flexed its muscles and we all hid under our desks when the sirens blew. We were funding programs to advance democracy wherever we could on six different continents. We had led the formation of the United Nations and were espousing the globalization of peace and prosperity in every corner of the free and not-so-free world.

Now that our U.S. GDP has expanded more than fifty-fold since then, we represent an eye-popping 15% of global GDP. There is no way to look at that other than to suggest that our fervent advocacy of the democratic process and the proselytizing of the “American Way”, regardless of whether you agree with that approach to geopolitics or not, has been good for the U.S. economy and, by extension, the American population. Oh, and by the way, during those sixty-five years, the percentage of registered immigrants has risen from 6% of the population to 13.7%. That doesn’t sound like a problem that increased immigration has pretty much tracked the growth in the share of global GDP represented by the U.S. economy. What about all of that and the general lack of global conflict (a.k.a. major wars involving the U.S.) has been anything but good overall for America and Americans.

I am not implying that economic growth, especially since the manner in which it is distributed is more suspect than ever, is the only measure of American advancement, but it certainly is the measure that is most often favored by the Republican side of the aisle. The democratically-driven prosperity of the last seventy-five years has been good for most of us and to do anything but continue it and improve on it by solving some of its inherent unsolved problems would be crazy. Yes, we have problems that need to be addressed. We have a racial and a wealth distribution divide that needs to be healed. Our approach to the rest of the world could use lots of improvement too. But I am reminded regularly that in 2009 when we had disappointed ourselves and the world through our financial excesses, and the world ran for financial cover, we were still the reserve currency of choice and the U.S. Treasury market was still the zero-risk bastion of last resort for anyone looking for a safe haven for their money. That says a lot about how much better it is here than anywhere else, at least in combination with the scale we represent (which is to say that Switzerland, Norway and Holland combined cannot offer much haven for a prosperous world of the scale we have helped build).

In my first eighteen years of life, I spent nine of them living as an expat in Venezuela, Costa Rica and Italy. Never once in those nine years did I not know that I was an American and Americans played to a higher standard. I spent all nine of those years wanting to be an American and wanting to get myself back to my roots in the good old United States of America. This was not Yankee Go Home, this was The Home of the Brave and The Land of the Free. Nowhere compared to America. Nowhere had the opportunity of America. Nowhere had the pride of America. When I took my first job at twenty-two I was asked by my global bank to consider taking a first posting in Milan. The International Department represented 80% of the bank’s profitability in 1976 and nowhere was more desirable than Western Europe for a posting. But I declined it to work the backroads of New England instead, just so I could stay in the United States and start my career where I knew I wanted to spend my life.

I understand that many people are huffing and puffing about Donald Trump and what he is doing to American democracy and the foundations of the free world (from NATO to Global Climate Change). I am as upset about it and about his dishonoring or the office of the American Presidency as anyone. I think about it every day and worry about it anew with every new story that comes out about his latest stupidity or ignominious action. He is truly a disgrace to this country and, indeed, a disgrace to the human race for what he thinks, says and does…every day. I have shaken his hand on several occasions, but at the time he was just another business celebrity that might give rise to another dinner time story. I would decline to shake his hand now just like he declined to shake Nancy Pelosi’s hand at his last State of the Nation Address. I want nothing to do with the man but to have him move squarely into my rear view mirror, where he belongs.

While I do believe he deserves to be punished for all his accumulated misdeeds from both before and during his presidency, I do not have the stomach to see that pursued. I just want him to go away for good and allow someone more reasonable like Joe Biden to get to work healing the country from this horrible episode we have endured. I want us to re-establish our good ties with our true allies and to put Russia where it belongs on the global landscape, as a renegade minor player that punches above its weight and seems to believe is boldfaced kleptocracy of the ultimate order. Once that happens, the more challenging work with China needs to happen and while there is no clear answer for that, it deserves a thoughtful and professional approach as opposed to the hip-shooting, smartest-guy-in-the-room approach that Trump has espoused.

Strong and power-hungry leaders have always popped up in world history and it is a never-ending task to identify and deflate them in due course through non-aggressive and righteous means if possible and by force if necessary. We have done that before as a country and we can and should do it again. Anyone who feels we should not be the global policeman or sanctimonious purveyor of democracy has never lived for long as an expat and recognized the shelter and comfort afforded by the umbrella that the United States of America provides its citizens. It will require some hard work (more now than pre-Trump to be sure) and bear some significant costs, but it will be worthwhile to get back on the track of democracy as we knew it.