The American virus

It’s painful to see the United States imploding in self-inflicted destruction. All the foundational principles that made the United States the wealthiest, most powerful, and most admired country in the world are being demolished right before our eyes. The ideological pillars of America’s unprecedented success are democracy, free trade, and immigration.

America has been the model country of democracy in modern times, even with all its imperfections. The independence of its judiciary, media, opposition party, civil society, and its politically assertive citizenry have all strongly functioned as guard rails, providing check and balance against governmental abuses. It also has professional civil servants who do not hesitate to blow the whistle against an incumbent administration. Since Donald Trump’s second assumption to the US presidency, however, the ability of all these bulwarks of democracy to push back against governmental abuses has been systematically weakened and even neutralized.

Fake news and disinformation emanating even from the White House and Cabinet members mislead citizens, disabling their instinct to push back against a wayward administration. Universities, which are laboratories of competing thoughts, are threatened with defunding. Law firms, which played roles in past investigations on Trump and his allies, are targeted with sanctions. Media organizations that have irked Trump personally are denied access to White House press conferences. The most appalling is the hurling of threats of impeachment against judges who issue injunctions against wrongful acts of Mr. Trump and his deputies. America’s independent judiciary is the envy of the world because of its strong tradition of calling out wrongdoings of even its nation’s most powerful leader. If Trump succeeds in destroying judicial independence, the US will complete its credentials as a full-fledged member of the world’s fascist governments.

America has attained the economic success that has been the envy of the world because it championed free trade. In fact, the free trade that it espoused disadvantaged a lot of impoverished countries because it weakened the latter’s abilities to develop their local industries. But Third World countries still managed to produce cheaper crops because of the natural advantage of their tropical environment, which the US doesn’t have. They are also able to manufacture less expensive commercial goods because of their comparative advantages in cheap labor and abundance of natural resources. Other developed countries have managed to manufacture cheaper goods compared to the US, simply because they’ve been better at producing them. It is because of these reasons—in addition to the fact that US products are more expensive because of the strong dollar—that the US has trade deficits with many countries. However, Trump falsely claims that tariff impositions of other countries on US products are to blame for US economic woes. Even if tariffs are reduced zero-to-zero between the US and the rest of the world, it will do little to solve the US trade deficit because the deficit is due to the natural and comparative advantages of other countries. Trump misleads his own people, and he will cause them more severe economic harm (together with the rest of the world), with his preposterous and outrageous tariff war.

Another fundamental reason for the US’ success is its history of embracing immigration. The success of America has been built on the shoulders of people of different races who came to US shores wanting to build a better future. This immigrant foundation is perfectly captured by the iconic sonnet inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty which goes in part as follows: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

It may be true that there are criminals among those who illegally cross the US border, but they’re a minuscule minority compared to the larger number of citizen-criminals as a percentage of the American population. The small number of criminals among undocumented immigrants should never justify a policy of treating all of them sweepingly as violent criminals. It can never justify their inhumane treatment through posthaste deportation to virtual concentration camps in foreign lands.

Americans must look at their past and remember their ancestors or their personal journeys that made them relocate to the US. They must listen to the words of an American professor, Robert Reich, who said: “Almost all of us are the descendants of immigrants who fled persecution, or were brought to America under duress, or simply sought better lives for themselves and their descendants. Politicians who stoke fear and hatred over immigration want you to forget this. Do not.”

Five years ago, the world was in turmoil because of the COVID-19 virus, which brought so much devastation worldwide. The world is again experiencing turmoil and devastation because of another virus—Donald Trump.