America is facing a series of interwoven crises. It should be abundantly clear by now that the policies of the Bush administration from the war on terror, climate change, to the long term health of the economy have exacerbated rather than ameliorated problems. Never before has America been held in such low regard by the countries of the world and never before has the security of the United States depended more on the cooperation of other countries. This is our tragedy. Terrorism, nuclear proflieration, financial crises, and global warming cannot be solved alone. American Liberalism used to have a compelling vision to meet the challenges of the world. Today liberalism has ceded national security to the conservatives. Well my friends, it is time take it back. Peter Beinart in his book, "The Good Fight", develops a vision for liberalism can once again hold center stage in American politics.
Neoconservatism has helped lead us to a conflagration in the Middle East while, five years later, Osama bin Laden remains at large. It is time for a distinct alternative.
The key insight of liberalism according to Beinart, is that the liberals of 1948 - Reinhold Niebuhr, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Walter Reuther among others - understood that America was great because it recognized the limits of its greatness. Rather than systematically impose their interests, American policy makers would work with other countries through multilateral organizations to promote these policies. Therefore, the United Nations, NATO, and GATT (later the WTO), would be fundamental in ensuring American security and promoting prosperity. The meassage for today is we must repair our enduring alliances. Ad hoc "
"coalitions of the willing" will not do.
Next, the United States must prove that liberal democracy is better than theocratic regimes like Iran and the Taliban. In 1948, proving the US was better than the USSR, meant tackling the evil of segregation. Therefore, Truman desegregated the US military and proposed the Fair Employment Board. Today this means tackling the twin evils of increasing poverty and inequality. The American dream today is becoming less and less a reality for millions of Americans. There are several indications that economic mobility is shrinking. America has a profound challenge to prove that this really is the land of opportunity. Sorry, but waving the flag and insulting those who disagree with us will not be enough.
Finally, America must lead the world to spread democracy and economic opportunity. Of course, democracy cannot be spread by at the barrel of a gun, nor can it be spread without regard to the economic conditions of the people. In the 1940s, this meant the Marshall Plan for Europe and Japan in order for those countries to rebuild without falling into Communism. Today, this means funding Middle Eastern development and making good on our Millenial Development Goals. Terrorism takes root where poverty and despair dwell.
Yes, America must be strong and fight terrorists, but we must also be smart and good.
So I suggest adding to Jim Webb's message of "Born Fighting" the following points:
1) We renew our relationships with our allies.
2) We prove, rather than proclaim, America is the greatest country in the world, starting at home.
3) We provide order, support, and hope for the world through international organizations.
"2) We prove, rather than proclaim, America is the greatest country in the world, starting at home."
Except why do we have to be the greatest country in the world. Last I heard, there was no prize available, no organized competition. Why can't we be satisfied by always trying to do better? If we even came close to living up to our own expressed ideals, we'd have a lot to be proud of, and not so many folks would hate us.
We're the richest country in the world, but that clearly doesn't make us great. And just what is the scale leading down from "greatest?" I dunno.
Our military is still "king of the hill," but it's becoming increasingly obvious that adding hills is not on the menu. We have declared the situation in Darfur to be genocide, which I thought was fairly close to the ultimate crime, but we seem not to be able to do anything about it, all the never-againing WRT the Tutsi/Hutu debacle notwithstanding.
We are the richest country in the world, yet the current administration is driving a million people a year (in round numbers) into poverty. What's great about that, especially if you're one of the million?
If you can get to them, we probably have many of the best doctors in the world. We have constantly-more-expensive medical machinery that allows us to study how a severely damaged brain reconnects itself to its body, but every year we have more people without health insurance, and therefore without "legitimate" (meaning paid for) access to even the splints and stitches layer of health care.
We're exporting manufacturing jobs and importing engineers. That's great.
I'm way too lazy to try to find the source right now, but some time back there was a study that showed that US students believed themselves substantially more accomplished than they demonstrated in tests while other groups believed themselves less accomplished than their results indicated (I'm paraphrasing wildly here). So we're not teaching the subject matter well enough and we're not teaching critical thinking too. That's great.
Anyway, if we want to claim to be the best, the facts are not on our side. Especially not lately.
So we should just keep trying to be better, and when others start to say (again...) that we're a great country, then we'll have something to be proud of.