My Idol Nation Got Feet of Clay
From idealized admiration to contempt for a political system.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”>A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (1859)
To understand why I am quoting Dickens, you need to follow me back some 40 years.
It was 1974. I had not yet turned 14, but was to embark on a journey that would change the rest of my life, because I was going to spend my most formative years in the nation I considered the beacon of liberty and democracy. I was finally to go to the land of infinite opportunities, and I was so exited, it defied description.
For years, I had harboured a very romantic and rather idealistic notion about these fabulous United States of America. This was the land, where my heroes lived; the brave men who had come and saved Europe from the evil Nazis. My family was grateful to them, since my great-grandfather and his family had suffered under the latter; he even had been imprisoned for his opposition to Hitler. These men in their smashing uniforms, with their chewing gums and crooked handsome smiles, had later helped my grand-parents to forge a new life for themselves and their children. They had introduced my mother to Rock’n Roll and Petticoats, had made my father become a military fighter pilot and let me grow up with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra songs in my home. They eventually also brought John Wayne onto my TV screen making me think that all American men surely must be in some way just like this tall man that always knew what to do and always won in the end. So, I wasn’t one bit surprised that they were also able to travel to the moon.
To now go and live in my thus idolised nation, was something I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams. So, of course, the following years, they were, indeed, the best of times...
Times, when I enjoyed wonderful hospitality of the lovely people of Texas, had a carefree time in high-school while relishing the great outdoors with an endless countryside and seemingly ever lasting summers. It was the time, when I experienced the Bicentennial, saw Gerald Ford stumble and fall numerous times, saw his unlikely opponent, Peanut farmer Jimmy Carter become President, became a fan of Johnny Carson's, had a major crush on actor Robert Conrad and learnt to water-ski in unaccustomed long summer vacations.
It was the time, when America moved forward, McCarthyism and the Nixon scandal were mere faint remnants of a dark past. Even racism didn’t seem to exist any more, at least, it rarely reared its ugly head during my stay. In short, to be young was great, because all you worried about was learning the dance moves of Saturday Night Fever and being able to sing along to its soundtrack.
When it was time for me to leave again, I had fallen deeply in love with this country and made firm friends. Little did I know that my love would be tested severely only a few decades later.
In 2003, when G.W. Bush and his administration decided to invade Iraq and spun the narrative, Saddam Hussein had been responsible for the 9/11 attacks and possessed WMDs, Europeans who had stood by America’s side after that horrible day in September started to turn away from the US. Anti-American sentiments rose to an unprecedented level, and most writers like myself published warning after warning that with this invasion, Bush had opened Pandora’s Box. We all know what happened in the years following the “Shock and Awe” operation. A whole region destabilised, terrorism on the rise, Osama Bin Laden, once the “freedom fighter” heavily supported by the US when he was still fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, was now enemy number one to America. In short, the world had become a far more dangerous place than before, and most of us in Europe blamed Bush for it.
Some of the deep friendships I had forged in my teenage years and that had lasted nearly 30 years eroded in the Bush era, and finally collapsed due to our ever lasting differences of opinion on US foreign policy. But, not only that, my views about America also drastically changed. I couldn’t understand how such a large portion of the population could fall for all the propaganda by the Bush administration and not see what folly it had been to invade a sovereign country in a “pre-emptive” strike. Western democracies didn’t do that, they didn’t start wars!
Looking back, I think that it was during the Bush administration when the USA became such a starkly divided country. More radical ideas from the right had started taking hold in politics. I often wonder, what the world would be like now, if Al Gore had taken the presidency at the time.
In 2008, I had sensed some hope for this country to progress into what I once saw in it. Obama seemed to be the right man advancing society and to bring it into the 21st Century. But, my hopes didn’t last long. Obama was not allowed to do what he had promised in his campaign, not even his own party supported him at times. And then, there was the Tea party, the ultra-right that had taken over Republican values! For the next eight years, Republicans were not interested in collaboration and putting the country back on its feet. They made it their mission to block Obama at every turn. He was the first black US president, and Republicans seemed to not only resent, but actually hate him.
Last year, when Obama’s second term was about to end, an election was fought by two adversaries polarising the nation in a way I had never seen before. The US were heading into a direction that most of us in Europe seriously feared. Our fear was far greater than when G.W. Bush was elected. This time, a dangerous demagogue was inciting a part of the population that considered itself the “forgotten”, and he gave them an ugly voice! He made lies into facts, insults and sexual harassment acceptable and destroyed political etiquette in a way that was mind-boggling. Yet, in the end, he actually became president of the United States of America! Sure, I could console myself with the fact, he didn’t win the popular vote, but what did it matter? The way the US election system works made it possible for such a man to move into the Oval Office.
So, here we are now, with Donald Trump as president, and one at that, who has managed in little over a 140 days to already rack up several scandals serious enough to have an FBI investigation haunting him and his administration, perhaps even leading to his impeachment.
Since January 20th, I have been waking up every morning more or less checking: “Is the world still standing? Is nuclear war looming?” Today, I looked at the news and thought, once again, how different times were under President Obama. This brings me to my earlier quote from Dickens. It didn’t come to mind because today’s political landscape in the US bears any similarity to A Tale Of Two Cities, it’s simply the words, in the stark contrast they describe. I thought they befitted perfectly two presidencies that couldn’t be more different from one another.
Some day, history may indeed describe them with the words of Dickens, and the introduction could start with:
“It was the best of times (Obama), it was the worst of times (Trump)..." and so on.
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