Wanting to be Great Again
New York Times Opinion presented a video essay, Stop Pretending “This is not Who We Are” (https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000007538961/capitol-riot-america.html). It was sharp, critical, and non-partisan. Its progressive lean remained clear by featuring Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first black senator at the end of the video.
If there was one thing I could have the video essay expound was that America became great by following the footsteps of Great Britain, France, and Germany by the turn of the 20th century. Before imperialist adventurism, national wealth accumulated thru westward expansion by driving out Indian tribes and Mexican patrimony. A nation built on stolen land by stolen people. The incessant conundrum of America at that time was reconciling imperialism with democracy.
I am of one of those people. We, Filipinos, have forgiven the first decade of the 1900’s where our American masters (we were purchased from Spain) brutally pacified us. Yet, we may be that success story because we ended up loving America who prepared us for self-governance, who liberated us from another brutal occupation, and who had given generations of Filipino immigrants the opportunity to pursue the American Dream. America will always be that great land of promise for us. We are that model for imperialist success.
So what does it mean when Trumpers want America to be Great again? Won’t empire-building be the answer once more? Invading property, the Capitol Hill assault surely manifested that tendency. The NYT video essay certainly got it spot on saying violence is etched in the national DNA. How could America have been number one without its penchant for the natural drive of aggressiveness, besides sex? Truly, it is the land of the snake-oil salesman who can pitch slogans like Manifest Destiny, Benevolent Assimilation, and MAGA to justify questionable means for an ennobling end.
To be respectfully fair, America had been great in two instances. First, when it rescued its European allies from monarchial excesses in the First World War. Then, it went all out and all in to eliminate Nazism together with military imperialism in the Second World War. Its leaders were principled at fighting tyranny in the pursuit of freedom and justice. The wealth that came from its industrial might was a consequence of principled motive. Wealth in the name of national interest was not the motive.
The Capitol Hill assault may have tarnished America’s reputation as champion of democracy and freedom. Yet, does it really matter to those parties whose interest are to impose their political culture, or whose motives are to dominate the political arena for self-serving interests, or to propagandize their agenda for the sake of wealth and pursuit of vanity? Who cares what other nations think, right? If America wants to be great again it either needs to be greedily invasive or it takes the hard unenviable road of principle.
I came across this YouTube video when the NYT clip above was sent by a friend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3j3RSxMSEg&t=45s). The Dave Rubin interview of Tulsi Gabbard during the Capitol Hill riot was for me, a breath of fresh air. The fresh air of centered principled politics. Hardline liberals may cancel out Tulsi Gabbard for her moderate Democrat position and conservatives will simply find her liberal. Yet that fresh air of principle, rated as dreaming or labeled as unrealistically idealistic may be just what is needed to do great, again.
Originally published at http://4convictions.wordpress.com on January 11, 2021.
