Fourth of July . . . and reflections on America

On the Fourth of July, for Americans and for people around the world, such names as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin rekindle the spirit of liberty. There is too the greatness of Abraham Lincoln that is remembered, for Lincoln saved the Union at a time when the southern confederacy seemed determined to destroy it.

Woodrow Wilson helped bring the First World War to an end, though he could not take America into the League of Nations. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a force that informed Americans they had nothing to fear but fear itself. He prevented the world, with his allies in Britain and Europe, from being overwhelmed by the Nazis.

But, of course, America can sometimes be an intriguing place when it comes to politics. And you notice that especially in a presidential election year, or the one preceding it when candidates sometimes make all those mistakes or come forth with all those bloopers that leave you quite amazed. Some years ago, it was Mitt Romney's turn to add to election year silliness when he told Americans at his final debate with Barack Obama that Iran was in need of an outlet to the sea through Syria.

It did not occur to him that Iran had a huge coastline of its own and hence had absolutely no need of a passage through Syria. Suddenly, to many of us, it was just one more instance of how unprepared some men are when they decide that they must be president of the United States.

In real terms, though, that and some other remarks, in the end, did undermine Romney's chances at the election in 2012. Americans have, after all, been known to choose some of the unlikeliest of men as presidents --- observe the chaotic and erratic presidency of Donald Trump which, mercifully for the world, has come to an end with his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden --- with results that have been none too comfortable for themselves and for the world at large.

And when you look back at the eight years of Ronald Reagan, you get to have a fairly good idea of how politics can be wasted with a shallow politician occupying the White House. Neither Reagan nor his team had anything to inspire the country with, save only their harsh conservatism directed at the communist world.

The Reaganites offered a trickle-down economy to the country. Outside America's frontiers, a persistent policy --- or call it conspiracy --- was underway to destabilize Afghanistan through assisting the Mujahideen and Pakistan's Islamist dictator Ziaul Haq in maneouvres against civil order in the country. Reagan and the Pope together did all they could to bring Lech Walesa to power through the fall of communism in Poland.

In a word, the Reagan legacy has been one of causing new turmoil around the globe. That is something you would not have expected his predecessor Jimmy Carter to do. The former governor of Georgia, once he entered the White House in 1977, started off with all the right policies in place. Human rights, he let it be known, would be his administration's priority around the world. The trouble with the times, though, was that they were not favourable for Carter.

Iran's ayatollahs, by seizing US embassy personnel as hostages in late 1979, drilled huge holes in Carter's walls. His comment that a malaise was abroad in the land did not help. Even so, he deserved a second term. The electorate did not see things that way. They turfed him out. In America, politicians with a philosophical bent of mind have almost always failed to make it to the top. Think here of the very cerebral Adlai Stevenson, who twice lost the race for the White House to Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Hillary Clinton, thoroughly well prepared to be president, did not make it in the end, for reasons that had to do with Russia and James Comey.

Had Americans not fallen for John F Kennedy's youth and glamour in 1960 and had they concentrated on which of the two men running for the presidency had the better experience of leadership at that point in time, Richard M. Nixon would be president. But, again, one is not quite sure that Kennedy actually won the election, seeing that Chicago mayor Richard Daley had a certain role in manipulating the votes in his city. After the election, Nixon was advised by his lawyers to contest the results. To his credit, he decided that a legal wrangle would only undermine the presidency.

Nixon would come back and win the presidency in 1968. He was one of the three most intelligent men to occupy the White House, the other two being Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, in the twentieth century. In these present times, we have Barack Obama to refer to as an epitome of a highly intellectually endowed president. Nixon's understanding of foreign affairs and geopolitics was profound. It is true that under him an imperial presidency operated in Washington, but that only showed the strength of leadership in Nixon. Watergate, of course, destroyed him.

In more recent times, some American politicians at the top have brought into focus their intellectual shortcomings in a way that makes you wonder how in the world they ever got to such heights. The instance of Sarah Palin will long be remembered by Americans and people beyond America. Dan Quayle, vice president under George H.W. Bush, will always be remembered for his misspelling of 'potato'. A little boy in school spelt it right. The vice president then stepped up to the board and added an 'e' at the end of 'potato'.

In 1988, Senator Joe Biden went around seeking the Democratic nomination for president through delivering eloquent speeches at his campaign rallies. It was only when someone made the startling discovery that Biden had been memorizing the speeches of Britain's Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and passing them off as his own that the prospective candidate dropped out of the race. Years later, he would serve as Barack Obama's vice president. Today he governs in his own right as President.

Going back to Mitt Romney's gaffe over Iran-Syria, you will likely recall the blunder his father George Romney made in 1968 as he sought the Republican nomination for president that year. The elder Romney, then governor of Michigan, toured South Vietnam to see American soldiers in action, was impressed by what the soldiers were doing in combating the Vietcong and came back home to give a glowing report to his fellow Americans.

Only weeks later, he stumbled on the discovery that the war had in fact been going badly for America, that indeed he had been brainwashed by senior US military officials on how 'well' American forces were doing in Vietnam. His popularity ratings plunged and he withdrew from the race. The Republicans turned to Richard Nixon, who went on to beat, albeit narrowly, Lyndon Johnson's vice president Hubert Humphrey at the election in November.

The American story has been one of light around the world and yet there are the heavy shades of darkness that have taken the shine off it over the years. Harry Truman caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Japanese when he decided to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki even as the Second World War was drawing to an end. Successive American presidents have tried to murder Cuba's Fidel Castro and indeed were instrumental in removing such acclaimed and elected foreign rulers as Chile's Salvador Allende.

George HW Bush had Panama's Manuel Noriega lifted bodily and flown to America to be tried on criminal charges. George W. Bush, in tandem with Britain's Tony Blair, invaded Iraq, destroying a beautiful secular country and sending its leader Saddam Hussein to death after a sham trial.

Two hundred and forty-five years after 1776, America remains busy in search of its soul. The assault by Trump loyalists on the Capitol in January this year, the decline of Lincoln's Republican Party into a cabal adamant in its defence of partisan politics, the murder of George Floyd decades after Martin Luther King Jr spoke of his dreams of whites and blacks coming together to reshape the American dream --- all of these are indicative of the United States of America yet being a work in progress.

That is the idea of America arising on the Fourth of July this year, even as America abandons Afghanistan after a futile twenty-year war and leaves the field open for the Taliban to seize the country again.