We Have Met the Enemy, and It Is Us: Restoring American Power
Getting the nation’s house in order — restoring our integrity and dignity — is a precondition for reestablishing our standing in the world.
By Gregory D. Foster
Professor, National Defense University
November 23, 2020
That President-elect Biden, when he assumes office, must necessarily focus his attention and that of the American public on domestic affairs can only be to the country’s decided strategic benefit. As Jan. 20 approaches, the United States suffers from four years of self-imposed disarray and disrespect abroad and acute discord at home – a superpower emeritus in the making, if not already in being. The most serious threat confronting us today is not China or Russia or Iran or North Korea – or any of the self-deluding, self-serving party lines national security bureaucrats inside and outside the Trump administration have force-fed us since 2017. It is us, the American people, and those who profess to represent, guide, and act for us.
Recent Pew Research Center polls — not to mention the just-completed election — show how politically and ideologically polarized we are along almost all lines: gender, race and ethnicity, age, and education foremost among them. Republicans hate Democrats, liberals hate conservatives, and nobody likes anybody very much. Eighty-seven percent of us are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. Seven out of ten Americans are angry and nearly seven of ten fearful, while only half are hopeful and 20 percent proud, with the state of the country. Public trust in federal government stands at a mere 20 percent, a low not seen for more than a decade. Adding blunt insult to self-inflicted injury, views of the United States abroad are at record lows in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and Australia, with the median favorable view of us in 13 countries around the world being just 34 percent.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/11/we-have-met-enemy-and-it-us-struggle-americas-soul/170285/
