The Liberals are pulling out some of the oldest tricks in the book to hammer newly resurgent Labor. One of them is to accuse anyone who questions a whole range of developments of being anti-American.
There are two basic problems with this critique. The first is that we are suffering the most right wing and activist US presidential administration in modern times. And secondly, the US, as sole global hyperpower, is now so important that almost everything is affected by it. As such, the US must accept some real responsibility for the problems of the world.
What does anti-Americanism mean anyway? It can hardly mean to question the importance of the US. The US is without doubt the most important nation in modern times. This is not just because it intervened twice to resolve the most intractable conflict of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – which eventually resulted in two world wars – and then shaped the character of the succeeding Cold War and post-1990 world orders. It is also because the US became the basic model for industro-capitalist development, a social system that has more and more shaped human society.
So does it mean to question the validity of the US as a nation? The US was the world’s first modern democracy, an achievement that can never be diminished. Furthermore, it has managed to maintain a balance between competing social pressures – democracy, populism, business, militarism, class interest, etc – that is still as viable as that of any country. The fact that the US has been a world superpower and is now global hyperpower and yet sustains a vital democratic tradition and practice shows the strength of this quality.
However, for various reasons, the main decision-making institution of the US is now in the hands of perhaps its least able president who is surrounded by unusually ideologically driven men and women. We should recall that this administration is only in power because of a decision handed down by a Republican–dominated US Supreme Court, and not through fair election. Despite the question of legitimacy hanging over its head, this administration has embarked on the most radical restructuring of international relations at all levels since the end of World War Two.
The US is now more dominant than any nation in history. It rules the world much like Rome ruled the Europo-Mediterranean world. Everything of any significance that happens on earth is seriously affected by this power. Therefore, any US government must accept the responsibility that goes along with legitimate power.
Recent actions by the current US government have not shown such responsibility. Amongst other things, Washington has opted out of a number of treaties designed to stabilise international relations, limit arms proliferation and deal with manifest environmental problems. Instead, it has gone to war illegally and greatly expanded its military ambitions.
These are not the actions of a government beyond reproach.
Furthermore, as the next presidential election will no doubt show, they are actions increasingly disapproved of by Americans themselves.
So, to criticise certain current trends in the behaviour of the US government is not necessarily to criticise America as such. But even so, as sole global hyper-power, the US must be prepared to answer to its critics in regard to a raft of pressing matters of global concern.
It should be said that there is one more aspect to this issue that needs mentioning, and that is the increasingly pervasive influence of American culture. Through the growing capability of electronic media – in particular, US TV, film, music and video games – Us culture mass is swamping other cultures. This McCulture is criticised because it is vapid and trite, and because it overwhelms alternative forms, including national traditions.
This is a different issue, and is much an argument about corporate influence as it is about American culture. In as much as there is raging debate in America, and hardly split down left-right lines, as various people worry about this same development, criticism can hardly be described as anti-Americanism.
So, all up, although we have to put up with, or willingly accept, Roman troops tromping around and a Roman trading system, we here in the provinces can still wish for a better emperor in the capital.