Isolated Rogue States

The United States hovers near the bottom of the list of nations with a positive global image. Slightly above Israel and somewhere on par with Russia. Despite the spin here in the United States, where Israel is viewed with sympathy and as a solid and reliable partner in the Middle East, as evidence of its global unpopularity, Israel consistently draws overwhelmingly negative votes in the United Nations General Assembly whenever it comes to any Palestinian issue… from expansion of Israeli settlements into the Palestinian-held West Bank even to whether or not the United Nations should allow the Palestinian flag to join the flags of other nations over its headquarters in New York (out of a possible 193 votes, 119 voted for the flag to fly, 8 against [including the US and Israel] with 45 abstentions).

Israel doesn’t do particularly well at the U.N. Security Council either, but the United States is quite willing to use its veto power to support virtually of Israel’s actions vis-à-vis Palestinians, most recently on June 1^st: “The United States vetoed on Friday [6/1] a Kuwaiti-drafted UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians, underlining Washington's differences with friends and foes alike over the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“Later, a second, US-drafted resolution that blamed Hamas for the violence and upheld Israel's right to defend itself failed to attract any other country's support when it was put to vote in the 15-member council.” english.manoramaonline.com, June 2^nd. Not one other nation? And only Guatemala joined the U.S. in moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Russia has generated global opprobrium over its annexation of Crimea, attempts to acquire additional territory (e.g., rather direct support of a Russian separatist movement in Ukraine), its support for a brutal and murderous dictator in Syria, its political hacking/disinformation campaign against Western democracies, and its apparent willingness to assassinate its opponents living in other countries. North Korea clearly made the bad-boy list, but Kim Jong-Un’s overtures to South Korea and the United States have softened that image at the expense of Donald Trump. Which of course brings me to the plunging power and influence of the United States almost everywhere.

Based on a very twisted reading of the “national security” requirements in the enabling statute, Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on long-term national security-friendly allies, like Canada and Europe, has drawn outrage from his intended targets. His constant castigation of NATO allies has driven a growing wedge between the United States and that essential coterie of strategic partners. His failure to accept the Paris climate accord or his withdrawal from the six-party Iranian nuclear protocol have further strained relations with traditionally strong allies. European leaders are increasingly looking at Trumpian America has one more negative force in the world and not as a dependable friend. You can watch as Europe circles the wagons against the U.S.

European leaders are no longer containing their ire at American rhetoric and what they feel are completely hostile and unjustified attempts by the United States to bully them into kowtowing to the Trump agenda. As Trump castigated Europe for giving the United States a purported raw deal, “French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday [6/7] threatened to join with other world leaders to issue a rare rebuke of the United States at a global summit [in Quebec, Canada] this weekend [starting 6/8], drawing an immediate and sharp reply from President Trump.

“Macron threatened to exclude the United States from the joint statement issued every year at the end of the Group of Seven summit of industrial democracies, as part of an international pushback against Trump efforts to change trade rules.

“‘The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be,’ Macron wrote on Twitter. ‘Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.’” Washington Post, June 7^th.  

Trump is slated to leave the G-7 meeting early, before the discussion on climate change, energy policy and oceans. Though he apparently did not have the courage to make this demand at the G-7 meeting, on June 8^th he stated publicly that Russia, thrown out of the G-8 when it invaded Crimea, should be reinstated… something which the European leaders have said they would not accept unless Russia materially changed its ways. At the actual meeting, Trump instead simply flattered Macron and his leadership. But wait, there’s more.

As Europe has issued new privacy laws (General Data Protection Regulations) to protect its own peoples, which rules rankle America social media/Internet conglomerates, Trump replied that the EU is “charging the U.S. massive tariffs and creat[ing] non-monetary barriers” in response. Europe rolled its collective eyes. The United States has become a nation that Europe no longer understands.

Europeans are equally aghast at the economic reconfiguration of America into a plutocracy. Our income polarization, the worst in the developed world, is viewed as a symbol of our failing democracy headed by a fact-averse, self-centered autocrat (as reflected in the above Time Magazine cover). Even the United Nations has condemned the skew of rich Americans getting increasingly rich (making “averaging” statistics look good) at the expense of everyone else.

“Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published a damning report [in late May] on poverty in the United States, condemning President Trump’s administration for exacerbating the problem of inequality by rewarding the rich and punishing the poor.

“‘The American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,’ Alston states in the report. ‘The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class white workers.’” Los Angeles Times, June 4^th. This also lowers the prestige and influence of the United States around the world.

We are deeply unpopular in most of the world. Rogue state. Bullies. Untrustworthy. Won’t honor our commitments. America First regardless of the consequences. So how does the Trump administration deal with this tsunami of negativity? By using words to tell everyone how much better the United States is regarded since he was elected, even if the opposite is in fact the case.

“Asked on Monday [6/4], President Trump’s 500th day in office, what he considers his top foreign policy achievement, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly replied: ‘The strengthening of relationships with a number of foreign leaders.’ The State Department said the same with a tweet: ‘After 500 days in office, U.S. leadership is back on the world stage as the result of @POTUS’s policies.’

“It’s no surprise that top administration officials have alighted on that claim. The president has been making it at every opportunity — during a rally last week in Nashville, at the U.S. Naval Academy commencement ceremony and in off-the-cuff remarks to White House reporters Friday [6/1], just to name the latest audiences… ‘We are respected again, I can tell you that. We are respected again,’ Trump told the Navy cadets. ‘A lot of things have happened. We’re respected again.

“The evidence — both in nonpartisan polls and in the increasingly critical remarks of exasperated allies — suggests otherwise… After 16 months, however, leaders of long-standing allies like [Japan’s PM] Abe, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May — all initially deferential to Trump and his famous ego — have grown frustrated and at times disapproving.

“Significantly, so have their citizens, increasing the pressure on foreign leaders to distance themselves from Trump’s America. Across 134 countries, the median approval of U.S. leadership dropped 18 points in Trump’s first year, to a record low of just 30%, according to a Gallup survey released in January. That was before Trump’s decisions to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and impose tariffs on a number of allies, which further alienated many of them.

“The finding echoed a Pew Research Center survey last year that found in all but two of 37 nations polled, Trump got far lower marks than President Obama; the exceptions were Russia and Israel… ‘In the main, it’s a preposterous claim to say the U.S. is better regarded in the world when we haven’t had for many decades this many crises with our allies,’ said Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat under several presidents — serving as ambassador to NATO and Greece and as undersecretary of State — and now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.” Los Angeles Times, June 7^th.

While Trump’s base, and at least on the surface many in the GOP, might buy into Trump’s unilateral description of how much he has accomplished in the international arena, there are literally very, very people in that international arena who would say much other than the United States has plunged in global influence, power and credibility pretty much across the board. The damage may take decades to reverse… if the foreign powers ever trust us again (we reversed decades of policy in the first 500 days of a single new president… and that could happen again).

I’m Peter Dekom, and that not remotely enough Americans understand international economics or politics, or are aware of how deeply our daily lives are impacted by the world around us and our relationship to it, have given rise to a populist president who has turned the United States into a global pariah.

Spreading Our Fake View of the World

It’s no secret that a majority of European leaders “now consider Donald Trump and the reckless nature of his governance their gravest near term threat — ahead of Putin, ahead of refugee flows, ahead of climate change — and the question becomes what might they do about that.” Daily Kos, June 4^th.  Yet one of the hallmarks of the Trump regime is the exceptional hubris of uneducated and ignorant appointees, mirroring their boss’ imperious arrogance, lecturing foreign leaders on what they should be doing in their own countries.

In early May, fresh off the plane that delivered him to Berlin to begin his tour of duty as Trump’s ambassador to Germany, “In a tweet after President Trump’s announcement to leave the Iran nuclear deal, [Richard] Grenell wrote that ‘German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.’ Germany, alongside France and Britain, wants to stick to the deal Trump is seeking to scrap. And while Grenell’s post may not deviate from the official White House stance on future European business dealings with Iran, the timing and tone struck some German politicians, journalists and business executives as offensive and inappropriate…

“‘It’s not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the U.S. ambassador. But he does appear to need some tutoring,’ said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s mainstream Social Democratic party, striking a sarcastic tone. The Social Democrats are part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and are in charge of key responsibilities, including the Foreign Ministry.” Washington Post, May 9^th.  Nahles’ perception was shared by German leaders in every political party. Grenell began his tenure by making instant enemies, making carrying his boss’ message to those who matter close to impossible.

Indeed, the United States is increasing viewed as a plutocracy supported by gun-crazy, science-denying evangelicals. Trump’s approval ratings, around 43% here, send shivers of fear around the world. Meanwhile, the American dream appears all but dead except to those who have found their way into the elite universities that ensure continuation of the power elite while allowing a trickle of brilliant new lower class students who have risen above the system. The rich have never been so rich, CEOs are peaking in their salary multiple (over 300 times) against their own average worker salaries, and wealth is increasingly concentrated in those one percenters. Just as 70% of Americans have pretty much the same effective buying power they had 30 years ago, those at the top of the food chain have never made so much money.

As trade wars, unaffordable healthcare, skyrocketing tuition for college and escalating housing and food prices are eroding what few gains those workers have generated, income inequality in the United States is among the worst such disparity on earth. The United Nations seems to think that the U.S. is on a very dangerous path, one that is accelerating to much, much worse. The June 4^th Los Angeles Times explains:

“Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published a damning report [in late May] on poverty in the United States, condemning President Trump’s administration for exacerbating the problem of inequality by rewarding the rich and punishing the poor.

“‘The American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,’ Alston states in the report. ‘The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class white workers.’

“Alston, who toured the U.S. at the end of last year, condemned the ‘dramatic change of direction’ in policies as the Trump administration pursues high tax breaks for the rich and cuts welfare benefits for the poor.

“Alston, a native Australian and law professor at New York University, spoke with The Times about his report, which he will present on June 21 to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. The interview has been edited for length and clarity[:]

My assumption was that poverty problems were more severe in many other countries. But then gradually, it became apparent to me that, in fact, the United States, which is a land of vast differences or inconsistencies, actually combined all of the wealth and riches that we see in some areas with stunning poverty in other areas.

In some ways, it was captured very nicely in Los Angeles by the contrast between the central business district and skid row. From skid row, you see the wealth, the opulence which is so close by, but in skid row itself, you’ve got this really large community of completely deprived people, where not even toilets were provided. The streets stank of urine and despair because the government is not prepared to devote serious resources to addressing the problem…

I started off in California, where the emphasis was on homelessness. I then flew over to Alabama, where the focus was on racial differences and the failure to provide even basic services, like sanitation, in areas that were very close to large cities. What was shocking was that even basic sewage facilities are not provided, and so I saw open sewage flowing into back gardens. And that is just something you sort of expect in a low-income developing country, but you don’t expect it in the United States.

I then went to Puerto Rico, which would definitely be the poorest state in the union if it were a state. The situation was very grim, even before Hurricane Maria, but obviously exacerbated greatly after it. I’m told I’m not supposed to use the term, but certainly, the conditions were very much Third World. I met people who were living without any real access to the basic services that we’ve come to expect. Government is just not an actor. There’s no provision of social protections at all.

I went to West Virginia, one of the states that did not take the Medicaid expansion, where they have relatively low rates of health insurance, and I saw the extent to which very few government services are provided for people generally — not just health, but access to the internet and so on. As was explained to me by government officials, if we propose any additional spending in the budget, it’s completely out of the question. It’s not going to be accepted by the Legislature…

The United States has the highest inequality of the richest nations. It has the highest incarceration rate by far. It has among the highest child mortality rates. It has the highest youth poverty rate. It has one of the lowest levels of voter registration in the rich countries. In essence, it scores extremely poorly on almost all of the comparative measures when compared with other developed states.

I visited China on one of these missions about a year ago and what I found was a country that has huge problems in terms of human rights but, in terms of extreme poverty, has made an absolutely concerted and genuine attempt to eliminate poverty and has succeeded to an important extent. By 2020, they will in fact have no one living in extreme poverty, unlike the United States.

While I don’t for a minute want to suggest that the political system [in China] is desirable or even compatible with democratic standards, I would very much welcome an American government that shows a determination to lift everyone out of extreme poverty. I think that’s what politics should be all about, and it’s not happening in the United States…

It is going to greatly exacerbate extreme poverty rates. That means you’ve got an ever larger section of people that are alienated, who don’t feel the system or the government is doing anything for them. That, in turn, begins to undermine support for democracy because people don’t see any value in voting, they don’t see any attempt to ensure basic conditions of well-being.

The United States is storing up immense problems for itself. It’s extremely shortsighted. Basically, you’re going to see great rejoicing on the part of the wealthy — and we’re not just talking about the 1%, we’re talking about the 20% — who are going to do increasingly well and gain increasingly more of the wealth of society. But it’s not sustainable politically. The upheavals that we’ve seen with the election of President Trump, with the increasingly large-scale rejection of the key institutions of society, I think will only become more extreme as the wealth differentials become ever greater. We are building a society where wealth and privilege will dominate everything, where you will start to move toward the privatization of ever more government services.

American carmakers don’t want Trump’s proposed deregulation of mileage and air quality standards, his trying to kill California’s right to set separate set of standards to deal with Southern California’s legendary smog. Medical professionals and major insurance carriers also overwhelmingly reject his attack on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare): “More than 95% of healthcare groups that have commented on President Trump’s effort to weaken Obama-era health insurance rules criticized or outright opposed the proposals, according to a Times review of thousands of official comment letters filed with federal agencies.

“The extraordinary one-sided outpouring came from more than 300 patient and consumer advocates, physician and nurse organizations and trade groups representing hospitals, clinics and health insurers across the country, the review found.

“Kris Haltmeyer, vice president of health policy and analysis at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn., said he couldn’t recall a similar show of opposition in his more than 22 years at the trade group, which represents Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans and is among the organizations that have expressed serious reservations about the administration’s proposed regulations.” LA Times.

Trump and the newly configured Trump-led-GOP are feeling their power. They’ve eroded every policy that passed during the Obama administration. They revel as Democrats fight between and among their own factions, making what once assumed an easy Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives seem a whole lot more challenging.

But the rest of the world no longer recognizes the United States as leader of the free world or even as an example of successful democracy. We’ve tumbled in stature, losing power by the day, and have gathered so much international resistance to anything that would be good for the United States, particularly as defined in Donald Trump’s racist and misguided “America First” mantra.

I’m Peter Dekom, and you have to wonder who will ever trust the United States again no matter who is in power and if we can undo the damage that a single president will have inflicted on this great nation.