Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1477075
14 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 24 AUGUST 2022 WORLD FOR a nation constructed around the guiding idea that the future is always bound to be brighter than the past, it is almost impossible today to dis- cover any American of note who would demur from the view ex- pressed in June 2020 by the New York Times that there is an 'ep- ic crisis' confronting the coun- try. In part caused by Trump's mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis, in part by the rise of so- cial media, but over the longer term by profound changes in the structure of the American econ- omy, the nation, it was argued, was facing some immense chal- lenges. But as the author of the piece, columnist David Brooks, assert- ed, the problems confronting the country would not be easy to solve. As he argued in an even more downbeat piece published a few months later, the US was not just going through a crisis, but was experiencing something close to an 'earthquake', a 'moral convulsion' no less. This found expression in various ways but most critically in an almost com- plete collapse in trust. This was not how things were in the past he noted. In 1964 for example a full 77 percent of Americans said they trusted the federal govern- ment. Towards the end of the Trump presidency many years later, that figure had nose-dived. Nor was the Times the only publication of note to be con- cerned about the contemporary challenges confronting that once celebrated and much admired 'City on the Hill'. Think Tank report after Think Tank report seemed to talk about little else. Large scale studies on the dan- gerous rise of nativism, new and compelling work on growing in- equality, and a vast number of popular books explaining why the US was in terminal decline, all pointed to a nation that could hardly be described as being at peace with itself. One Brook- ings report published in early 2021 certainly did not mince its words. America, it argued, was facing nothing less than a 'cri- sis of despair' amongst a once confident people, including the 'white working class' who in their despair had turned to Don- ald Trump to provide them with solace and protection in a world over which they felt they had lit- tle or no control. Even the denizens of high art finally woke up to the fact that there was something not quite right in America. Indeed, one leading gallery was even moved to bring together '40 leading American photographers and 120 works' in an exhibition which they simply entitled: 'America in Crisis'. The exhibi- tion left one with little place to hide with graphic and powerful images on display of brutal po- lice facing down 'rioters' in an America divided against itself along nearly every conceiva- ble line: from race to gender through to how one understood American history. Not that there had ever been a consensus about America's past. Never, however, had there been such a division about how to view America's long tortuous rise from British colony to superpower. As one writer aptly put it, most Amer- icans once used to agree that there was a 'collective national story' around which they could all congregate. Now there were just several opposed narratives. Un-civil wars Inevitably the exhibition also included that most filmed and photographed of all events in recent US history: the storm- ing of Congress on January 6th 2021, the culmination of a long period in which the US, accord- ing to many writers, had moved from being a country in crisis to a country on the brink. Nor of course has this first act in what some feared was the beginning of a 'second civil war' been forgot- ten. Certainly the Congression- al hearings which have gone on to investigate the origins of the attack itself has done a brilliant job in outlining the steps that led to the attack, reminding people (if they needed reminding) of one simple fact: that President Trump used every means at his disposal from threatening the Department of Justice to pres- suring senior republican officials in Georgia and Arizona to over- turn an election which he had been told on several occasions (by members of his own family no less) that he had lost. Then, having failed to get his way by 'peaceful means', he inspired an insurgent attack on Congress to prevent Biden officially becom- ing President. Naturally enough, the deep- er causes of America's multiple fissures have been much debat- ed with some analysts of a more Democratic persuasion (under- standably) laying all the respon- sibility at Trump's door, others to the economic fallout from the financial crisis of 2008 and the downside consequences of glo- balisation, and a few to the end- ing of a Cold War which for all its dangers did at least provide the country with a unifying ene- my around which to unite. Some would even trace the rift back to the 1960s when America began to come apart and a new gener- ation of radical liberals began to set their own agenda on a whole range of issues from abortion to gay marriage, in turn setting off a backlash amongst that large but significant 'silent majority' who proclaimed their loyalty to the flag, their devotion to the Amer- ican way, and a belief in a God who couldn't be anything other than deeply conservative. Whatever the cause or causes of the current malaise, there is little doubt about its consequences. Thus, one set of Americans it seems get their news from one single source – CNN (if you're liberal) – while another (Trump supporters) gets theirs from Fox News. This in turn has impacted on Congress with an increasing- ly right-wing Republican Party standing on one side of the aisle glowering at their enemy, the Democrats, on the other, and the Democratic Party doing the same. Nor is there any doubting the impact all this is having on American perceptions of their own country. Hence, most liber- als now think it is almost impos- sible to work with republicans. Meanwhile, most republicans, and even more extreme Trump supporters like the Proud Boys and QAnon followers, do not think Biden should even be in the White House. Indeed, as a series of rather disturbing polls have shown, somewhere between 50 to 70 percent of all Republicans agree with Trump that the elec- tion was stolen, and that Biden is not a legitimate President. The economy and the Mid- terms Biden also faces one other up- hill struggle as his party moves towards the mid-terms in No- vember: namely a US economy in trouble. Few doubt the Amer- ican economy's resilience or ca- pacity to innovate and compete globally. The almighty dollar, the number of Nobel prizes won in the US, and the fact that eight of the top ten world companies in the world are American, tak- en together tell their own story of an economic system with for- midable strengths. Even now as the stock market falters – 2022 saw the biggest drop in years – jobs were still being created at an impressive rate. But as Time magazine reason- ably asked, if the economy was in such good shape why is every- body feeling so gloomy? The simple answer is inflation and the measures taken to deal with it. It is the making of a perfect storm with on the one hand or- dinary Americans facing a major hike in the price of basic goods like food, gas and rental accom- modation, and on the other a Federal Reserve determined to crush inflation by raising inter- est rates and causing what many otherwise sober pundits now suspect is almost inevitable: a recession or something close to it. Even one of the less pes- simistic analysts who thought a recession 'unlikely' still con- ceded that if developments ei- ther took a turn for the worse at home (for instance an uptick in COVID-19) or abroad (most worryingly a possible recession in Europe caused by Russia stop- ping natural gas supplies) then a 'US downturn could certainly happen'. Either way, there is little like- lihood that the material situa- tion for ordinary citizens will get better any time soon. More- over, it does not matter to them whether professional econo- mists agree, or disagree, that the economy would or would not grow by one or two percent in the near or medium term. They are hurting now. Nor are things likely to improve any time soon. The stakes are high for the disunited