A couple of days after my Russian curiosity stint, I found myself in the United States, and it was nothing like our weird northern neighbor. Covid-19 had blocked my twice-a-year routine American trips, and it was just about time to get a somewhat procrastinated new glimpse of the world’s still-most-powerful country, a citizen of which I happen to be. Incidentally, citizenship doesn’t mean possible bias in evaluating the picture I came across this time around.
America is America, and that will hardly ever change. This is a never-ending land of rich vegetation and desert sand, stern snow-capped mountains and green fertile fields, with millions of miles of manmade roads and sporadic spots of clustered skyscrapers in-between, plus the famous two-storied urban structures belonging to the rural middle-class.
The country is developing at a dizzily high velocity of three percent annual GDP growth, never losing its internationally recognized status of world leader, at times qualified by political analysts as a global hegemon. This is a political culture that is based on its almost 250-year-old Constitution as the main law of the land, its famous Bill of Rights, of the same age, the keystone of its judicial system, and the even older Declaration of Independence as the Bible of the American political morality. These well-known firm and weathered prerequisites of the American state structure are so strongly written in stone that the current generation of politicians are all made secure from the pernicious effect of any bungles or misjudgments they might conceivably perpetrate. The American political, social and economic stronghold makes an impression that it is utterly foolproof. Indeed, the country seems to be safely navigating via the masterfully tuned-up autopilot initiated by its founding fathers two and a half centuries ago.
And yet, in our glaringly changing modern world, there are certain shortcomings that pop up to hold American society back from its traditional progress towards a habitually guaranteed high-quality lifestyle for the majority of its people. For instance:
1) The upcoming presidential elections. Described by the media as fateful, the November elections may very well put democracy on the line, so that by the end of the year, the States, and the entire world for that matter, might look shockingly different, thus threatening the American fair-state status quo. It is persistently predicted that the famous American democracy and free speech, as well as the American-dictated international order, might soon be put to the severest possible test. In a word, all that is in store for the American citizenry as a consequence of the relentlessly approaching elections is something that might change the country forever, signaling to the world that nothing will ever be the same again.
2) Judges. Historically speaking, judges in America have always been taken, by Americans of every generation (since the very first English settlement in the New World right at the start of the 17th century), as the fairest and highest druid- one possessing the human fates in their own powerful hands. Not any longer! It is said that nowadays even a judge can fall under political influence in the bipartisan fight between Democrats and Republicans. Faith in truth and fairness was the rock on which the American judiciary system was built, and if it falters, America might stop being that beacon of democracy it has been for the last four hundred years.
3) Immigration! Any textbook of national history would maintain with confidence that the United States of America was made up of immigrants from all over the world, which is an irrefutable truth. Immigration per se has determined the strength and greatness of this new nation. All of us American citizens are immigrants, or the progeny of immigrants, and it has always been an honorable title. Not any longer! Immigration has become the subject of insurmountable strife in the States, which might very well be conducive to a serious national split. Some would even fearfully suggest that the situation might instigate of a civil clash. Immigration created this great nation, but now it is killing it!
Washington is today full of electoral strain and political belligerency, threatening the process of fair and free elections. This means that any losing party will inevitably blame the winning one for having wronged the process, which, for its part, can trigger civil unrest. This is a commonly heard prediction, especially in America, where elections have been elevated to the rank of something divine. This way or that way, the future of America has never been in the hands of a voting citizen as firmly as it is today. It is only a thoughtful and educated voter who will decide which way the nation goes. Incidentally, the same is very true in the case of Sakartvelo.
Naturally, not all that catches the eye in today’s America can be mentioned in one short article, like for instance, the egregious inflation, the homelessness in the streets of big cities, tens of millions without medical insurance, frequent involvement in somebody else’s wars. And still, America will survive, as it always has. Americans know how to use the current weaknesses and failures to the best of their advantage. This is simply part of this socio-political culture – turning evil into good.
Blog by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
