Is the United States In Decline?
What do YOU think?
That is what is most important!
Excuse us for living, but these commentaries never aspired to even approach the standards of academic treatises. And so, I am not about to “get academic” on a topic so serious that I have been sitting on for some time now waiting through the “silly season” of the Presidential Election. “Is the United States in decline?” a subject that erupts from time to time over the decades, has been a popular topic once again over the past year 2012.
As I look over the array of materials on the topic, it seems to me that the discussion floats between our country being “in decline” and our country “being number one.” And while we can debate whether or not those two things are necessarily the same, I will forgo that debate and discuss them together as being one and the same for the sake of saying a few things here. Ah, I bet I hear all sorts of opinions out there already! Now I’m counting on many of you to respond under, “Comments: Please!” at the end of this post!
Where to begin? For me, it was one main article on the topic of U.S. decline that I will get to later. But it caused me to start looking, searching. There were books that came out on the subject in 2012:
Time To Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent, by Edward Luce
Strategic Vision: America & the Crisis of Global Power, by Zbigniew Brzezinski
The World America Made, by Robert Kagan
That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented & How We Can Come Back, by Thomas L. Friedman & Michael Mandelbaum
– – All reviewed conveniently in editions of The New York Times Book Review. But what about that one main article of which I spoke? Hold your horses! Not yet!
HBO’s newer series, “Newsroom,” stars Jeff Daniels, pictured above, as anchorman Will McAvoy. “Newsroom” is written by Aaron Sorkin of “West Wing” fame.
Then, thanks to the Facebook news feed, I discovered from YouTube the beginning scene of the new HBO series that premiered June 24, 2012, “The Newsroom.” – – starring Jeff Daniels as anchor Will McAvoy, written by none other than Aaron Sorkin! It was billed on YouTube as “The Most Honest Three Minutes in Television History.” The essence of it is “why America is no longer the greatest country in the world, but that it can be” again. You can easily Google the title for YouTube (re “The Most Honest Three Minutes in TV History”). I commend it as worthy of your time. – – really “good stuff.” Take a look at this on YouTube if you can.
OK. The Article! – – “Five Myths About America’s Decline,” by Ian Brenner. It appeared in The Washington Post, May 3, 2012. You can read it in its entirety by going to Google and type in “Ian Bremmer, Wikipedia.” There, scroll down to “Essays” and click on the eighth title listed. Also, “Who is Ian Bremmer?” might give you respect for his article. You can find that at the top of the same Wikipedia page too! – – Conservative, political scientist, professor at Columbia University. He is founder and president of Eurasia Group, a leading global political risk research and consulting firm. And last year, May 2012, he authored, Every Nation for Itself: Winners & Losers in a G-Zero World.
I will not attempt here to develop fully the five myths about America’s decline, but to summarize the essence of Bremmer’s article. He opens by stating that it is easy to conclude that “America is in an irreversible decline” based on “drawn-out wars, economic struggles, exploding debt,” and that “after a good run, it’s time to hand the superpower baton to China or some other up-and-comer.” Bremmer does not dispute that the U.S. was better off economically a decade ago. However, he continues, “those seeing decline as inevitable do not just ignore the nation’s history of resilience, they also misread the facts on the ground.” He then proceeds to name the five myths or common misconceptions and to debunk them in succinct, but superb detail:
The Five Myths:
1. The United States is no longer a superpower.
2. America’s economic future is bleak.
3. America’s political system is broken.
4. The United States will give way to a rising China.
5. The World no longer needs U.S. leadership.
Remember now, these are the five myths/misconceptions. The “meat” of the article is what Bremmer tells us that counters these myths. I regret these points are too lengthy to include here. He concludes with: “If America can engage the world with a narrower, self-interested focus, it will reap rewards. It will have the luxury of applying cost-benefit analysis before intervening abroad. It’s a downsized role, but don’t mistake it for decline.” (underlining added)
OK, so what do I think? – – Just don’t forget I want to know what some of you think under “Comments: Please!” Are we in decline? I say simply, “no.” I’ve been monitoring this question literally all my life starting when I was a history major at Rutgers in the 1960’s. But the world is drastically different and rapidly changing and so is the USA. We must develop a more sophisticated self-image and drop the 20th century neurotic notion of being #1 all the time, in everything! After all, we were not thought of as the world’s monolithic military power just a short 100 years ago! For that matter, industrially & technologically we were just getting rolling 100 years ago!
It started with Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency when the United States emerged as a world power. In 1901 when Vice President Teddy Roosevelt suddenly became president due to the assassination of President William McKinley, the U.S. Navy was the sixth largest in the world. By 1907 when TR sent the American Navy’s “Great White Fleet,” sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet all painted white, on a fourteen month friendship cruise around the world, the U.S. Navy had expanded to the second largest! And even in those times, President Roosevelt saw nothing wrong with the fact that we were second in size to Britain’s Royal Navy.
The image of strength and leadership as a nation took a giant leap forward with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Despite his 1916 re-election campaign motto, “He kept us out of war,” Wilson went on to lead us into World War I with the words, “Make the world safe for democracy.” The war in Europe had been in progress since 1914. U.S. entry and participation in 1917 hastened an Allied victory by 1918. By then the United States had reached the stature of leading the peace with President Woodrow Wilson’s historic effort that culminated in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
That American image was solidified during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR soft-peddled our road to war, first with U.S. mobilization efforts beginning modestly in 1940 and then more aggressively with the Lend-Lease Act in 1941 to supply the Allies with needed materiel. But our fate was sealed on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese bombing of our bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States entry into World War II and our subsequent military victories, economic and industrial might, development and use of the atomic bomb, under both Presidents Roosevelt and Truman to follow, sealed our fate. The United States only then became the #1 dominant force in the world, an image with which we are now left to wrestle.
Excuse us for living, but despite all the negative talk, the USA is still by far the world’s economic powerhouse. Sure, the economic growth of China, Russia, India, Brazil, etc., is strong. But they have a long way to go to match the magnitude of all our economic indicators. We will be OK if we stop the political games in the Congress, curtail our debt, and concentrate on jobs, infrastructure, our industrial base, education, energy, a green America, violence, immigration, and more. And we do not have to be #1 in all of these either. We must strive to be a healthy nation once again, simply, with the military power we need to protect ourselves and justice around the globe when we deem it necessary and the economic prosperity to meet our needs at home and also let the arts flourish in America too. What do you think? For, that is more a determining factor here than has been discussed, i.e., our confidence and our will to carry the country we love forward!
Comments: Please!
Excuse Us for Living 
Three Sons & A Dad’s
McSorley’s Trip 2013
The facade of McSorley’s Old Ale House as it has looked since 1854 in New York City. – – Located at #15 East 7th Street between 2nd & 3rd Avenues near Union Square & Cooper Union.
Excuse us for living, but this April 2013 marked my fifth trip with my three sons to the one and only Mc Sorley’s Old Ale House in New York City. We have been doing so every other year since 2004. (Last year’s trip was postponed until now due to #2 son’s one and one-half year work sojourn in London.) To my delight, the “boys” seem almost more enthused than I am with each visit to my old haunt. Actually, I am thrilled too that we have this time together relating in a very unique way.
As my sons’ jobs and abodes changed location over the years, so have the details of each trip. Suffice it to say, we all rendezvous at McSorley’s at 3:00 PM on a Saturday in the spring. The custom of this NYC landmark is to serve 2 mugs of ale, one dark and one light, at the same time to each person as “a round.” No trip is complete without a dish or two of American or Cheddar cheese, crackers, raw onions, and HOT mustard. Now the mustard is so hot, it requires an ale in hand to quickly wash this unique culinary treat down as fast as possible. This routine goes on for anywhere from 6 to 9 rounds. Now that totals 12 to 18 mugs a man! We’re talkin’ some serious beer drinkin’! To everyone’s amusement, an ever so brief mock business meeting of the “Three Sons & A Dad’s Club” is conducted by yours truly according to a loose interpretation of parliamentary procedure a` la Robert’s Rules of Order. Plenty of photographs are taken in the course of our spell at McSorley’s to incriminate all! We always terminate our visit by 5:00 PM. At that time, we take a traditional photo around one of the green barrels placed on the sidewalk outside the storefront. – – Cigars passed around to all concerned! Then, it is off to dinner with wine, of course, at a preordained, with much “research,” Italian restaurant nearby. Such evenings end with retreat, inevitably, to one son’s NYC apartment for an “overnighter” to sleep it off! – – Full diner breakfast Sunday morn & then everyone off on their respective trips back home.
Every trip to McSorley’s includes a photo like this of all four of us. Left to right after me is #2 son Peter, #1 son Andy, & #3 son Tom. We know this is “special” & “one for the ages.”
If you don’t try the cheese, crackers, raw onions, & HOT mustard at McSorley’s, you just haven’t been there! It’s part of the experience & what a treat, what fun!
Here we are leaving McSorley’s & taking another traditional photo with me sitting on one of the old barrels out front.
The roots of this McSorley’s tradition date back to my years at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1965. Members of the Rutgers Glee Club, to which I belonged, introduced me to McSorley’s one fateful weekend. It was love at first gulp! The atmosphere was infectious from the sawdust on the floor to the memorabilia on the walls going back to 1854, when its doors first opened. “We were here before you were born,” became McSorley’s motto, painted on the front window, at some point over the years. In those college days, “2 Draught Ale .30 cents,” says the menu (which hangs today in my house over my upright piano), “Coca Cola-Seven Up .20 cents, Cheese & Crackers & Onions $1.00 Large, .50 cents Small.” Even our meager college allowances could afford McSorley’s. And all we had to do as members of the Rutgers Glee Club was to break into song , as we inevitably did, and the clientele saw to it that we “drank free” with all the rounds they bought us. Today, the 2 drafts are up to $5.50 now! But the cheese and crackers are only $5.50….. “Go figure!”
Waiter Richard Buggy, known to all who frequent McSorley’s, proudly meets Andy a few years ago. He was waiting tables at McSorley’s going back to my Rutgers years & I knew him then! He retired around 2010. On the wall of McSorley’s is a small newspaper article about Richard Buggy’s regular job as an NYC Police undercover cop in all sorts of disguises!
McSorley’s Old Ale House is the oldest Irish tavern in New York City, founded by John McSorley in 1854, just a few years after he arrived from Ireland. It’s “claim to fame” was having been one of the last “Men’s Only” pubs. This practice ended in 1970 when the doors of McSorley’s opened to women as a result of a discrimination case brought to District Court and won. But the establishment took 16 years to add a proper “Ladies Room,” sharing a unisex bathroom with the gents all those years! The memorabilia on the walls is an eclectic collection from art work to newspaper articles, literary pieces, and items dating back in history and politics from photographs to campaign buttons and so much more! McSorley’s is considered one of New York City’s “top 5 Historic Bars,” located within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. Patrons of McSorley’s go back in history to include Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Peter Cooper, Woody Guthrie and a long list of literary figures.
Photos of McSorley’s Interior “Ambiance”
Excuse us for living, but to visit McSorley’s will add much to the “living” and with no need to “excuse”!
Comments: Please! This was a real “fun write” with photos…almost as much fun as this last trip! Thanks, guys for trip #5!!!
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Posted in Commentary, History, McSorley's