By Hongshanke
Recently, four former presidents of the U.S., including Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, successively made statements about the death of George Floyd, expressing their denouncement of racial discrimination and sympathy for the victim and his family, and calling for examining “our tragic failures” and restoring the “justice of the country”. None of those four former presidents, no matter the democrats or republicans, made excuse for or support the Trump administration.
It is rare in American history that several former presidents criticize a current administration at the same time, and this reveals the contradictions and conflicts of American society, a society full of protests, demonstrations, violent conflicts, polarization, and xenophobia. What is wrong with the U.S.? Is this supposed to be the status of the only superpower in the world? Definitely not.
The deep-rooted racial discrimination is undermining the foundation of the U.S. Recent months saw the ongoing protests and demonstration triggered by the death of George Floyd, an African American who died after a white police officer held a knee against his neck, which have spread to more than 650 cities in America and even dozens of countries across the world, including Britain, Germany, France and Canada. This wave of protests has become the most widespread one in the world. Protestors on the streets hold high signs saying “I can’t breathe”, “Black lives matter”, “No justice, no peace” and so on, making explicit the chronic problem of the U.S. — racial discrimination — to the whole world.
After more than 400 years of struggle, it seems that black people now enjoy the same political rights as white people. However, due to the huge gap in terms of education and wealth, black people have always been treated unfairly. According to a report of the Brookings Institution released in February this year, at $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a black family ($17,150) in 2016. According to the statistics of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 23% of reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are African American, even though black people make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population. According to the data released by the New York Times on May 28, from 2013 through 2019, at least one thousand people died of police violence each year, among which black people account for the majority.
It is worthy of notice that racial discrimination is not only against black people, since Asian Americans, Latinos and other people of color are at the end of the pecking order. Racial discrimination has become the serious wound in American society, leading to a series of contradictions and conflicts that is gradually undermining the foundation of the U.S. as a nation.
The intensifying political rivalry is depleting the energy of the U.S. In recent years, political polarization has become a prominent feature of the U.S. politics. Either party, be it the Republic Party or the Democratic Party, is becoming increasingly homogenized, increasingly extreme on the spectrum of ideology. The Republican Party is increasingly conservative while the Democratic Party is increasingly liberal, with the moderate Republicans or Democrats dwindling away.
However, political polarization has penetrated the life of ordinary people. Surveys showed that supporters of one party increasingly intolerant of members of the other party. People are unwilling to be family members or partners of supporters of the other party, and acquaintance with different political views will not hesitate to unfollow each other on twitter. Political polarization is intensifying social tensions and creating more conflicts.
The widening gap between the poor and the rich is rearing apart the American society. There's a long history of economic inequality in American society. In the mid and late 20th century, in order to confront the Socialist camp, the ruling class of the U.S. had to make some concessions to the underclass, narrowing the gap between the rich and poor to some extent. However, in recent years, the rich-poor gap is widening, displaying the trend of polarization.
According to the data of the U.S. Federal Reserve, from 2009 to 2012, the incomes of the top 1% Americans grew by 31.4%, while those of the bottom 99% grew by 0.4%. At present, the top 1% Americans control more than half of the shares of the listed companies and private companies in the U.S., and their assets amount to about $ 35.4 billion, almost equivalent to the total assets owned by the middle class and upper-middle class.
The COVID-19 epidemic has widened the rich-poor gap further. According to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies of the U.S. on June 4, the combined wealth of America’s billionaires reached an astonishing amount of $ 3.5 trillion, surged by over $565 billion during the 11 weeks from March 18. Among them, Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos saw his wealth soar by about $36.2 billion while Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune surged by about $30.1 billion. The net worth of Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, Co-founder of Google Sergey Brin and others also rose by more than $13 billion over the same period, while nearly 43 million workers filed for unemployment. The quickly widening rich-poor gap is increasing the risk of social “explosion” in the U.S. and dispelling the myth of “prosperity” and “wealth” of the U.S.
The reckless government is squandering the credibility of the U.S. On June 7, during his quarrel with Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State, the U.S. leader surprisingly exposed the lie used to justify the U.S. war against Iraq 17 years ago. He tweeted frankly that “Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!”
In those years, it is not rare that the unscrupulous U.S. government cheated to achieve its goal or evade its responsibility. In particular, the current U.S. administration has been upholding the principle of “America First”, discarding credibility and morality in international affairs, acting recklessly, and withdrawing from international organizations or treaties at whim. The U.S. withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017, from the Paris Climate Change Agreement in June 2017, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in October 2017, from the Global Compact for Migration in December 2017, from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR), Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 2018, and from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2019.
While the COVID-19 is raging this year, the U.S. government, instead of making all-out efforts to protect the live and health of its people, shifted blame to the World Health Organization (WHO) and China, even demonstrated its military power across the world, willfully disrupting the global security and stability. It also terminated its relations with the WHO and withdrew from the Treaty on Open Skies.
The U.S. is a country founded on the honoring of a contract, but in recent years, the practices of U.S. are deviating from its founding principle, damaging its credibility and tarnishing its image.