Transpacific Reflections

 

Pic courtesy The Atlantic

As a casual Australian blogger, I try to resist the temptation to make every second post about US politics.

It’s becoming difficult to resist that temptation, however, twelve months after a mob invaded the Capitol during the constitutional process of the transfer of power after their last presidential election.

For a country that describes itself as a constitutional republic, rather than a democracy, reflecting on the threat to that constitutional process that occurred on that day is a worthwhile use of Australian pixels. I have learned, the hard way, that what goes down across the Pacific almost always has ramifications for us.

The background to these events, and their place in the historical context of the early twenty-first century is significant.

In the American context, a national malaise emanating from the decline of manufacturing, the consequent offshoring of jobs, the loss of confidence in national institutions and the questioning of these institutions by a media promoting profit-based outrage, have combined to put the future of the country at risk.

For some observing American history, that imperilling of democracy in a country that defines itself as something other than a democracy may not seem significant. That’s an acceptable view, providing that the institutions based on their constitutional arrangements continue to hold. 

On January 6th 2020, they were under real and present danger, and in the end were protected only by the Vice President. The fact that he has been vilified by the Republican Party for keeping his oath reveals just how far that institution has strayed from its founding principles. Perhaps contemporary Republicans have forgotten how their party got its name. 

Lincoln warned against America destroying itself in a speech in 1838. That noise in the background is Abe spinning in his grave.

Against the background of a rising and assertive China, this weakening of US institutions is very worrying. If we depend so much on America's protection, and the US is slowly destroying itself from the inside, then we may well be up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. Add to that the certainty the China will emerge as the most powerful economy on the planet in the next few years, and the future looks far from rosy.

Worst of all, as Australians, there seems to be very little we can do about it....