A letter to America from an appreciative ally
Donald Trump’s philosophy about the United States’ place in the world is historically selfish and will impoverish his country’s spirit.
While he claimed last week to be ‘liberating’ Americans from the exploiters and freeloaders who’ve been screwing them, his assault on global trade was really just another step towards the US’s relieving itself of the responsibility it admirably took on as a new kind of superpower—one that embraced global leadership and used its power and wealth to shape the world for the better.
Americans should ask themselves, ‘Do you want to be remembered as the nation that changed the human story by overseeing a global system of rules and ethics that restrained people with power from doing whatever they liked to people without it? Or do you want history to describe the US as the country that, after a few generations of working to make the world a better place for all, chose the less exceptional path?’
All countries self-mythologise, sometimes in ways that elevate them. The uplifting story that the US has told about itself is that it is a special nation—a type of nation to which others can aspire, an indispensable nation. The US is great not in the sense of simply powerful. Many countries and empires have been powerful throughout history. Rather it is great in the sense that, as the world was becoming more connected in every way from sea trade to social media, it has recognised that global leadership based on a set of universal values was its responsibility.
Globalism is not, as Trump would have it, an ideology. It is a fact. Advances in technology, many driven by US innovation, as well as political, social and cultural progress, have brought the world together in the realms of both bits and atoms. US hegemony during this transformative period has helped deliver 80 years of remarkable stability, enabling the greatest ever period of global prosperity. The share of the global population living in extreme poverty, for instance, fell from 42 percent in 1981 to 9 percent in 2017, according to World Bank figures.
Most of the commentary about Trump’s revolution—the evisceration of foreign-aid agency USAID, the moral equivalence shown to Russia and Ukraine, the vengeful tariffs, the contempt towards likeminded democracies in Europe—has focussed on the self-defeating absence of strategic pragmatism. Commentators have shown a reticence in questioning the idea that the US has every right to act like an ordinary country and recalibrate its foreign policy to prioritise its national interest unyieldingly over the global interest.
Perhaps it’s presumptuous to say the US has an enduring duty. Granted, we can’t demand it continue to pursue global interests alongside its national interest. But as the biggest, richest, most powerful democracy at a time of rapid and confusing change, it has a unique opportunity—perhaps one that won’t come again any time soon—to keep leading the world through a period of progress, openness and stability, however bumpy that road might be.
Trump argues that global mindedness has come at an unacceptable cost to the US. But data shows otherwise. US GDP per capita, according to the latest World Bank data, is about US$83,000. Australia’s is about $65,000, with Britain $50,000, France $45,000, Germany $55,000 and Japan $34,000. China’s is about $13,000. The US has performed by far the best of any advanced economy in recent years. If the US’s friends are screwing it, they’re doing a lousy job.
The US-led global system has benefitted Americans as it benefitted others, some of those others perhaps more than Americans in relative terms, enabling those countries partially to catch up. That seems to clash with Trump’s win-or-lose guiding philosophy; if someone else has done well, that must be at our expense.
True, China has taken advantage of the liberal rules-based trading system and of globalisation. And yes, many friends of the US have neglected their defence spending obligations. But that message has now been heard loud and clear. However laggardly some allies have behaved, that doesn’t mean that the US is taken for granted. Indeed, it is deeply admired. Americans should not let Trump convince them that allies and partners are unappreciative spongers.
Perhaps the US wealth advantage would be wider still if it had pursued America First for many decades. But to what end? To become a bastion of material privilege in perpetuity? A nation of Mar-a-Lago inhabitants?
Think about those quintessential American stories, the type that Hollywood, more than any cultural centre, has mastered. When the bad guys ride into town or when the world starts to fall apart, the hero is the one who fights back, rallies everyone else, takes charge and puts things right. It’s not the person who shrinks away, tries to save his own skin or, worse, to profit from the chaos.
So this is a plea from an appreciative ally. The US that has taken responsibility for the world’s problems has billions of real friends and admirers. History will be very kind to it. You don’t need to make America great again. You already are great. But now you’re in serious danger of being just ordinary.