Making America Good Again
Whether you are angry, depressed, or drowning in a storm of anxiety, it is hard to believe that the U.S. was once a superpower. The world’s unmatched leader in technology and innovation now struggles to respond effectively to a deadly pandemic. We used to be a Great Nation, that is true. Trump’s campaign slogan hits a nerve because all of us, on the right and left, know we haven’t been ‘great’ for quite some time. While there is disagreement about why or when the U.S. fell from grace, our high points are more commonly understood. Let’s review some of our historical successes.
1. Consider the industrial mobilization build-up for WWII, which was started by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1939. We harnessed the working class to manufacture the equipment necessary to defeat Hitler. His plan was controversial. Big businesses did not appreciate being ordered around by the government; however, the failure of the U.S. to meet the challenges of WWI, put everyone on notice.
FDR viewed industrial mobilization as both a way to prepare for inevitable wartime engagement and as a domestic jobs program. He succeeded in doing both, as the massive industrial mobilization catapulted the Allied forces to victory, and put our nation to work. This initial investment paid off handsomely, creating a golden age for the American working class that lasted through the 1950s and 60s. The U.S. government achieved this with unprecedented investment in its domestic workers and companies. The national budget increased from $8.9 billion in 1939 to $95 billion in 1945. Women and minorities were invited into the workforce to expand production capacity. During wartime, the government purchased up to 50% of all manufactured goods in the U.S. FDR kept his promise to purchase from American industry. This enormous self-investment lifted us out of the Great Depression. As the national budget increased, so did our gross national product (GNP), which went from $90 billion to almost $212 billion in the same time-frame. It took a world war to convince big business to make peace with the New Deal socialists, but work together they did. This marriage of labor and capital was what we needed to prevail. America was great because we invested in ourselves and unified to end a terrible war.
2. America was also great when we created the polio vaccine. FDR contracted polio during a summer vacation at age 39. Permanent damage to his legs made him a wheelchair user for the rest of his life but also inspired him to create the March of Dimes foundation. This organization provided much-needed funding to Dr. Salk, the eventual creator of the first effective polio vaccine. Because his efforts were publicly funded and supported, Dr. Salk refused to patent his vaccine, preferring to make it available to all nations on earth for free. When asked ‘who the vaccine belongs to’ he replied, “Well, the people, I would say.” Another researcher, Dr. Sabin, created a better version of the polio vaccine in 1962, which he declined to patent, for much the same reason. The U.S. was great when it gifted the polio vaccine to the world, saving millions of lives instead of merely seeking profit.
3. President John F. Kennedy challenged the U.S. to put a man on the moon in 1962, saying that we should do it, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.” Americans were enjoying a healthy middle-class life and single-income households. We had the money, and we had the time. Kennedy mused publicly that landing on the moon was necessary because “…there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.” This lofty ideal propelled the U.S. to put its best minds and considerable wealth to the task. President Kennedy set up the Apollo Program, which ultimately cost $25 billion and employed some 400,000 people. Privately, Kennedy admitted that he was primarily concerned that Russia had sent a man into space first, and he feared to lose the Cold War. Regardless of the impetus, the U.S. succeeded in landing on the moon just seven years later. The benefits, technological, and otherwise enhanced our society for decades to come. The moon landing catalyzed digital flight control technologies, advances in medicine, food safety, and even entertainment. Landing on the moon was one of the coolest things America ever did, but even then, getting the money to pay for it was not easy. Scientists and politicians worked hard to convince their respective constituencies. Even civil rights activists, who initially opposed the moon landing, were persuaded to support it and shared in celebrating our collective dream come true. At that moment, Americans were ‘great’ because we believed in ourselves enough to try something as challenging and audacious as a moon landing.
Now, in 2020, we again face a threat of epic proportions in Covid-19. This kind of problem beckons the American spirit of the 1960s, or, perhaps the 1930–40s. Scientists tell us that the way out is through testing. Until we can see who has Covid-19 and who does not, we are flying blind. Recent estimates indicate that we need close to one million tests per day.
Additionally, we need antibody testing and contact tracing to vanquish this invisible enemy completely. These are difficult and costly plans, but surely not out of reach for a nation that defeated Hitler, cured polio, and conquered the moon. If only our leaders saw it that way.
Instead of proving to the world that we are the “greatest nation on earth,” we are told that saving Americans isn’t a priority; it is too costly and too hard. Instead of facing this challenge mobilized with a unified vision, we are encouraged to “die like soldiers” to protect the economy. Rather than invest in American workers, they are being sacrificed and made to work in unnecessarily hazardous conditions. Working Americans were given a one-time $1,200 check and told to be stoic. That check isn’t even enough to cover average funeral expenses.
As the pandemic ramped up in April, President Trump tried to cut funding for coronavirus testing. Blocked by public outrage, he shifted position and cut all funding to the World Health Organization instead. The novel coronavirus is a global threat that requires an international response — defeating an enemy like Covid-19 demands the same degree of effort and coordination that we applied to win WWII. It also warrants the same level of upfront investment in the lives and livelihoods of American workers. Most importantly, it requires a moral compass. This crisis is forcing us to decide just how much an American life is worth. The failures of a private, profit-driven healthcare system have never been more evident. Our lack of self-care didn’t begin with Trump, and it won’t end with him either. American workers don’t have paid family leave, paid sick leave, strong unions, or other protections usually indicative of a first-world nation. Our huge corporate monopolies are parasites on the working class. Apparently, willing to kill the host as long as there is no interruption in feeding.
The stage is set much as it was before WWII. Our long-abandoned manufacturing sector could be brought back to life with an infusion of government monies direct to comprehensive healthcare infrastructure investment. The wasteful and tenuous global supply chains that allow transnational corporate conglomerates to take advantage of slave labor while claiming record profits for shareholders could be interrupted. Using a two-pronged strategy like FDR’s, we could employ millions of Americans to build much-needed equipment and train a new cadre of workers for a public health sector. Americans needed universal coverage before the pandemic and now it may be the only thing that can see us through. The United States will never be ‘great’ again until we invest in ourselves, in our people, and our dreams of a better world.
How did we lose our way?
Milton Freidman and his trickle-down, supply-side economics theory played a big part in the capitulation of the American soul. There was a time that Americans believed they were good people. We fought Hitler because it was the “right” thing to do. We cured polio to end widespread human suffering here and around the globe. We used to do good things because we were good people. But eventually, we tossed aside the intrinsic value of human life in exchange for unrestrained capitalism. We told ourselves that ‘greed was good’ and embarked on a journey of endless consumption, unmitigated growth, and ultimately the destruction of our working class.
We no longer fight wars to ‘save’ anyone. We fight for oil, power, geopolitical control, and access to markets. We stopped even telling ourselves stories of goodness because deep down, we know that we have been ruthless with the world and each other. We have become the enemy we once vanquished. We have lost our way. It turns out that greed is not good. The earth is a closed system; we are all interconnected. What goes around, comes around. The idea that individuals, nations, or economies are independent of one another is a dangerous lie.
In truth, America cannot be great again until it becomes good. Without a moral vision for our people and the world, the malignant leadership that controls us will sully every attempt at recovery.
Both parties and Wall Street have succumbed to this desolate version of society, where “capital” is our god, and we accept human sacrifice to slake its vacuous thirst. Our best moments came when we aspired to lofty ideals and real moral vision.
A country that once realized nearly impossible goals now balks at testing all its citizens for a highly contagious virus that is killing thousands every day. We beat Hitler, we won WWII, we cured polio, and put a man on the moon, but now we can’t figure out how to test 300 million people for Covid-19. Is the task difficult? Sure! Impossible? Not at all.
“Where there is a will, there is a way.” American history teaches us that, above all else. But the current state of affairs is apparent: The rulers of our country do not intend to save us. They are too cheap and miserly to invest in the future or anything that doesn’t immediately line their own pockets. In the history of the world, there is no group more wealthy and powerful than the American 1%, and this is the best they can do. God, I am so entirely unimpressed.
Hedge fund managers and other investment hucksters will force us to reexamine the wisdom and pragmatics of allowing a small group of greedy investors to control global outcomes for billions of human beings. They do not care for our families or us. We are sacrificial pawns, worthless, except as a mechanism for increasing their wealth. And why do they behave in such a reprehensible way? Because they are not good people. They are bad people, who care not for human life and know only the fleeting pleasure of ill-gotten power and unquenchable greed.
“Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.” — Malcolm Muggeridge
(Thanks to Pam Daley for editing)
