Last night, I was watching Air Guitar Nation. (Demonstrating: a) I’m a wild man on Saturday Night; and b) I am a man of discerning television tastes.) It’s a story about organizing the first Air Guitar championships for the U.S. so that we’d have an entry in the International competition in Finland. Now, Air Guitar is not where I’d look for a conservative or liberal bias; but I was struck by a scene where one of the competitors was introducing himself as an American to some non-Americans and was immediately self-conscious about our nation’s reputation as warmongers and, more generally, being a bunch of jerks.
This struck me, not so much because of the significance of the scene itself – it was pretty short and not terribly consequential to the rest of the documentary – but because I’ve been watching some other shows from the mid-2000s lately, and it’s a recurring theme. I think it’s easy to forget just how bad our international reputation became under George W. Bush – we all remember things weren’t good; but I, at least, tend to forget just how diminished my sense of the United States’ place in the world had become during those years. If you were traveling in the world, and someone accused Americans of being Imperialist Warmongers, what would you say? “We had to invade Iraq because the Saudi and Egyptian members of al Quaeda hated us for our freedom?”
I suspect I won’t change any minds with a blog entry like this. Those who already agree will agree more. Those who don’t will likely either: a) Accuse me of Bush Derangement Syndrome; b) Sneer at the idea that we should be concerned about the opinion of foreigners and regard their disdain as a badge of pride; or c) Claim Obama is no different and is merely Bush’s third term because he hasn’t rolled things back nearly as much as we’d hope.
Anyway, it’s at least important to remember with some clarity what the Bush years were like, not to slag on his memory – but because the 2012 elections are coming up. Obama’s failures are clear and present. Bush’s are mellowing with age. But, when you look at the 2012 candidates, you have to ask, will they be more like Bush, more like Obama, or something entirely new? I look at Candidate Palin (to take an example since she was first up in my feed reader) and have no comfort that she’d learn anything from Bush’s policy mistakes:
She says “America is hurting” and at “a tipping point” due to “failed policies and incompetent leadership.”
The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee says the crisis runs deeper than the fear of double-dip recession or “the shame of a credit downgrade.”
She says this crisis “will relentlessly rage until we do restore all that is free and good and right about America.”
“Restore” — in other words, go back. Go back to where? Well, I’ve been told that to read that as aspiring to pre-Civil Rights America is to unfairly malign the Tea Party; so, at the least, I have to assume she is referring to a pre-Obama Administration America.
Doug, I’m a pretty proud American, but I will also point out and try to fix our flaws. No nation is without problems, and only those who are myopic choose to think so. Yet, as a history buff and occasional teacher of American history, we are truly unique so far.
We have created a nation in which all religions are equal and there is officially no discrimination amongst many classes, races and genders… and yet, in many ways we have fallen far short of this ideal.
But I also have travelled some – from 1981 to the present – in particular in Europe. Up until the Bush Years, there was gentle criticism. Younger Germans weren’t happy during the Reagan years about our missile policy, but the older generation was very supportive. But when the George W. years happened… people got silent at first. It wasn’t until they knew you better, that they would begin to discuss politics.
On several occasions I had to defend our nation’s decisions… and found myself explaining that he barely won both times. They usually forgave the first one — as a judicial decision… but they really were disgusted that it happened the second time.
We got to Paris the day US troops entered Baghdad. We found the French people to be very accommodating and polite as long as we made an effort to speak French and not be the “typical American tourist”. I think this is where a lot of people find that their trips abroad go awry. They believe (I think mistakenly) that people of whatever country they are visiting should make them feel “at home”. The whole point of a vacation abroad is to experience another country, culture, language, etc. You are most certainly not going to feel “at home”. If you want to feel that way then you should probably just stay home.
On the other hand, our friends and coworkers here were the ones who treated us as though we were some sort of American traitors. I got the impression from some that we should meet a firing squad for having the audacity to plan a trip to France. Guess I can understand why so many in the world consider us to be “ugly Americans”.
Being an older American and a person interested in government and history but not claiming great expertise in either–just a question as to the role of whoever is President as to really how much impact they may have in the whole course of events. Sometimes I observe comments even news reports stating things so far removed from reality to make me wonder if most people have even a remote idea of how things really work. Example: recent report in local newspaper that Obama had denied several local counties disaster relief due to spring flooding. Now, does anyone believe the President of the United States sitting in the Oval Office pondered this decision and made a decision? Yes, Presidents may make decisions without full congressional action (the involvement and degree of involvement in Iraq and other wars may come close to being major positions that impacted the country and world). As we again enter a presidential election cycle it is magnified as the claims of the opponents lay blame for every thing–every thing bad, that is–in the lap of the President.
Another thought is that the current economic situation is one different than in the past as the recession changed the “world of work” substantially through more adoption of technology thus less dependence upon labor/people having jobs. It is possible we will not return to situation where lower skilled workers have any real opportunities for higher income work. And, now sure anything the President could ever do about it.
I think one of the problems in evaluating a nation’s standing in the world is that such evaluation is not objective. Diplomacy isn’t about who is righteous. It is about strategically gaining what is dear to one nation by only sacrificing those things that are less dear, i.e. compromise based on strategic priority.
Compromise of any sort is seen as an anathema by true believers of any stripe. In that regard, it shouldn’t be surprising that the more polarized our domestic politics become, the worse our standing in the global community.
Take the Iraq War, Part Deux: most allies of the U.S. weren’t opposed to dealing with Saddam Hussein, however they wanted to let the diplomatic process – including weapons inspections – run its course. The U.S. short circuited diplomacy and in the process antagonized many of our allies. Other nations didn’t believe Saddam was good, but they valued cooperation over unilateralism more than what many perceived as a contained threat. In their eyes, sacrificing diplomacy was a bad move, given most believed – correctly – that Hussein wasn’t a threat beyond his borders.
“Going back” is probably not an option if Big Business has its way–and I’m pretty certain that it will. It would appear there are two choices in the future for those citizens unfortunate enough to be lacking in massive funds and/ or incredible ambition:
1) Work like a dog for subsistance wages in order to squeak by. This assumes you can get a job.
2) Sell yourself into indentured servitude in order to get the education needed to secure corporate work.
I’m just one of those people who tends to agree with you, so I’ll just say “amen” and move along……
On the tenth anniversary on 9/11, isn’t it interesting that the only member of the axis of evil not still gracing the earth in Sadaam?
You know damn well that if we didn’t invade, he would still be there.
Is that worth anything? Is it worth the price we paid? I’d say yes and probably no.
To what extent has a free Iraq influenced the other Arab uprisings?
Do we get to gloat at the Italians and the French for invading Libya?
BTW, I absolutely never talk politics when I travel. I have found that foreigners loved Bill Clinton, for what that is worth (he seriously could have been a politician in Korea, they loved him that much). Haven’t done much traveling since Obama was elected.
I’d like to go back to Reagan, and I think that is what Palin means.