by G. Alfred Kennedy
The idea of an American century is not new nor is it novel. We had begun to construct the framework for it during the previous administration. However, the cancerous effect of avarice, envy, and ineptness of a renegade President has weakened it since 2017. The overarching question to this author is whether that framework is on its deathbed, or just in need of aggressive repair? This author believes it is on life support.
The idea of an American century begins at home. We could restore meaning to it by once again living up to our best ideals, not the narrow, regressive ideas of a corrupt few, by once again becoming a champion-of-life leader. To begin, rebuild our nation’s infrastructure; strengthen our social safety net, not plot to destroy it; and provide national healthcare.
Restore meaning to an American century by, again, resisting the impulses of what Eleanor Roosevelt referred to as extremism and tribal certitude; championing ideals that lift the human spirit everywhere: Liberty, freedom, the equal rights of men and women, a respect for a fragile environment that sustains life for all that inhabit planet earth; accepting that everyone deserves the best quality of life, and the necessity for a government that ensures social justice.
We could restore meaning to an American century if we, once again, were the fount for great and progressive ideas; a society that values science and its contributions to the advancement of civilization, and not just worship the power of military might, vacuous political bluster and demagoguery. We give content by eliminating the current plague of economic injustice here at home while growing the most prosperous country in the history of the world. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. We could represent a society that values balance in all things because the absence of it gives rise to revolt, a reversion to political and social “siloism” – as history continues to instruct us.
We restore meaning to an American century by again, elevating soft diplomacy, not the threat of military power against those who would oppose us. There is little enthusiasm today for more military adventurism to achieve national security goals. It was the decades-long practice of soft diplomacy that helped to elevate America’s standing among a tide of newly independent nations in the 1950s and 1960s. Government-sponsored programs exposed an emerging generation of European, Asian, African, and Latin American leadership to the richness and diversity of the American experience in the aftermath of WWII as an alternative to the repressive policies of a recent colonial past and authoritarian regimes of the 1930s and 1940s.
I can recall a time during my former Foreign Service career when every head of state and government in the civilized world for over 40 years was an alumnus of this prestigious club. We offered a better formula to create a more democratic and prosperous future with higher rates of education and quality of life. Restore meaning to an American century by reprising these programs. Expose hundreds of thousands of new and young leaders to the American experience and the promise of the country, not town squares to harness the frustration an increasingly youthful planet experiences.
Finally, we could restore content to an American century by respecting the salience of the Constitution and electing to public office men and women of vision, capable of big ideas to solve big problems; leaders who would inspire others to join them in a crusade to heal the divisions in this country; to lift up the weakest among us and cease demonizing the poor, blaming them for the corruption by the rich, and to restore respect to our public sector employees. What is needed are leaders who create opportunities that uplift and strengthen this country rather than foster powerlessness and despair. We could elect leaders with the intelligence to cope with a changing world, who are not purchased by the oligopolistic interests who currently fear and thus thwart change, and who would hold the country and the world captive to practices that enslave, not enrich.
Progressive American leadership would attempt again to encourage friends and allies to realign with us in international forums to heal deepening fissures among countries and, hopefully, dissuade potential adversaries from forms of adventurism that threaten peace and stability. Our success in restoring this century as an American century lies in whom we elect to positions of national leadership in 2020 and throughout the balance of that decade. It is up to us – we the people. We make our leaders. The alternative is we preside over our escalating diminution as one of the world’s most successful societies.
