Friends of the US should be worried- but there is hope.
The United States is failing[1]. Writing these words comes very close to causing me physical pain. You may wonder why a German living in London cares so deeply about events on the other side of the Atlantic. Aren’t there enough things to be worried about in Europe? It is true that 2020 has been just as kind to us Europeans as to our American friends. However, it is also true that now, more than ever, we cannot afford to ignore what’s going on in the US. First there’s the simple fact that international primacy matters[2]. If this seems too abstract, just imagine a world dominated by the Soviet Union or the 3rd Reich. Even in 2020 it should be clear that such a world would be much worse than ours. You may at the same time disagree with American foreign policy and recognise the current world order as what it is: a direct result of American primacy. However, there is a more important reason why I care about the US. Events in America move us Europeans in the same way the killing of one unarmed black man in Minneapolis moved Americans in far-away Los Angeles. Not because we have any kind of personal connections to the place. For most of us, visiting the US remains an item on our bucket lists. Even without visiting we know that America is more than just another country on the map. To quote Rammstein “We’re all living in America”. All democracies and all democrats share a deeper bond with this nation. America stands for a set of ideals, and the struggle towards their attainment. It’s those ideals against which acts of injustice contrast so sharply. While it is natural to feel angry at the disparity between American ideals and American reality in the streets, it is important that our anger doesn’t devolve into hopelessness and hatred of the American project as a whole. For everyone who believes in democracy and the rule of law a healthy US is good news. A failing America, on the other hand, should worry all of us. Instead of abandoning the struggle, our generation needs to rediscover and reclaim those timeless ideals. Looking back, the progress made gives us plenty of reason to fight on notwithstanding the real injustice that remains a feature of many people’s lives. Sadly, the effort for reform has for decades now been recklessly undermined by professional demagogues in politics and the media.
These prophets of doom either recklessly or maliciously risk pushing the American project into an abyss. The world is now holding its breath to see whether they will succeed in tearing the American social fabric to shreds. Every single one of us has a stake in this battle between those looking to improve and those looking to tear down. Sometimes, when you feel trapped and hopeless, when it seems like you’re not getting anywhere despite your best efforts it can help to get a friend’s perspective on things. They might remind you that the struggle is the way, and that you cannot really fail as long as you keep aiming high and trying hard. I believe that losing faith in reform and progress would be a fatal mistake. Remaining silent or calling for wholesale revolution makes us complicit. Maybe, reminding Americans that they have friends who believe in what’s best about their country is a good first step. History shows that the American project was from its very beginning bound up with the European one.
The US has since its founding been a country torn between conflicting tendencies. On the one side, it is the idealist project par excellence. Declaring independence from the world’s mightiest colonial empire at the time to embrace democratic government and inalienable rights was literally revolutionary. The power of America’s revolutionary ideals made itself felt by their ripple effects a decade later in France. French soldiers who had fought at Washington’s side (to annoy the British[3]) returned to a country already rife with seditious ideas. These young men had seen first-hand that democratic government was more than just a utopian dream. The years that followed demonstrated for the first time that America’s system of government exercised a tremendous attraction far beyond its borders. American ideals have been a subtle force for democratic change in the world long before the US became a military superpower. Without actively intervening, just by declaring its values and ideals, the US acted as an inspiration to the world. Born out of an awareness of its unique status as an idealist project, the quintessentially American tendency towards isolationism can be traced back to George Washington himself.
America’s first President famously warned against “foreign entanglements”, counselling his countrymen instead to focus on domestic development. Amplified by the US’s uniquely favourable geographic location, this isolationist tendency has survived until today. From the isolationist point of view, the US is well equipped to raise its citizens to historically unprecedented levels of peace and prosperity if, and only if, it resists the temptation of global power politics. The Colosseum of international intrigue, so the argument goes, would not just be a waste of resources, but also taint the moral purity of the democratic project. The isolationist believes that the American homeland is safe and sufficient unto itself. Only pride could lead so privileged a nation to risk its men and women in foreign adventures. Even today this line of thought is alive and well, featuring prominently whenever US intervention is publicly debated. As we know today, history soon demonstrated that events thousands of miles away could nevertheless strike right at those same ideals that isolationism was supposed to protect.
The same proud ideals that had tempted successive generations of Americans to view themselves as fundamentally apart from the “old” world meant that America could not ignore the evils of Nazism in Europe for long. As the legions of the Reich overthrew one European democracy after another, it became increasingly difficult for the US to avoid coming to grips with the situation: the regime that was rampaging through Europe was not just a threat to its European neighbours. The European War was forcing the US to decide what kind of country it wanted to be. By remaining inactive in the face of aggression and genocide the US would have sealed the fate of European democracy along with that of millions of civilians. A decision had to be made, and either way the consequences for American identity would be far-reaching. As a German, I am thankful that the US decided to put an end to the Nazi nightmare and guarantee the democratic development of at least the western half of Europe. Had the US not pushed back first against Hitler and then against Soviet Communism, the success story of post-war Europe would have been unimaginable. Beyond just Cold-War politics, generations of Europeans growing up with American music and Hollywood began developing a shared western identity. With the US as a cultural powerhouse and political ally, Germany finally found its place among the western democracies and Europe entered into an age of unprecedented prosperity. It is because of the friendship many of us Europeans feel towards the US that we are worried to see American democracy being eroded.
A democracy lives off its public discourse. Citizens must believe that they are all on the same team, no matter how strongly they disagree on specific policies. For decades, corrosive forces have been eating at this foundational belief, each of them amplifying the centrifugal forces pulling society apart. The growth of hyper-partisan media outlets, pioneered by radical talk-radio hosts such as Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh and the rise of social media echo-chambers have supercharged people’s tribal instincts, while partisan gerrymandering made sure that this radicalisation translated into political results. While these social arsonists can be found on the entire political spectrum, they’re ultimately united in their support of “accelerationism”. Dissatisfied with simply watching society tear itself apart, they actively accelerate the process. Rather than reforming the American project, they’d rather tear it down and build their respective utopia on its ashes. This historically illiterate attitude of destruction smacks of arrogance. For our generation, buying into this insanity would be inexcusable. Calling for revolution in places like the US and Europe is like using chemotherapy to cure a cold. Rather than risking the loss of centuries’ worth of progress, we should aim to reform and reconcile. It may not lead to maximum change, but it has a far better shot at resulting in maximum progress.
Right now, the vital stats of the American experiment are shaky. The question every one of us needs to ask themselves is not just whether the status quo is acceptable, but whether we believe in the American project’s ideals. If we do, then we have no alternative but to decelerate those accelerationist forces. We need to aim at healing and reforming rather than splitting and tearing down. As a European who takes history seriously, I believe that the liberal democracies we have are worth fighting for. No doubt that they have their flaws, but at bottom they are superior to every alternative around and worth fixing. I am not in a position to make policy recommendations to my American friends, but I hope from the bottom of my heart that they find it in them to turn this around. Our generation will be judged by posterity in light of what we do now, so we better think hard about the lessons of the 20th century.
The fact that there remain important issues on which there is a broad consensus in favour of reform gives reason to hope. We have a crisis on our hands- what we need now is a new hope. America has in the past found ways to emerge stronger out of its darkest trials- thereby serving as an example and inspiration for the world at large. Today, as the world once again looks at the US, my wish to Americans is simply that they remember who they are at their best. If only they find the self-confidence to look beyond what divides them and unite around common ground, nothing can stop them. If they don’t, the forces of accelerationism will advance unhindered and end the American experiment for good. The world cannot afford this failure. We need the US. We need it strong, democratic and self-confident.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/george-floyd-protests-cornel-west-american-democracy
[2] Huntington, Samuel P. “Why International Primacy Matters.” International Security 17, no. 4 (1993)
[3] And to take revenge
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