Returning America Back to Greatness

"Make America Great Again" 

When I first heard the slogan, I was struck by it's simplicity. It was so to-the-point. 

Make my country great again. 

I didn't get to witness the "greatness" of America from within - I had only watched it from afar, from a steady diet of Hollywood movies, initially the Western "Dirty Harry" movies that I enjoyed as a kid, and later movies like Rocky, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate. Of course everything looked great on silver screen, and if America had problems, Americans seemed well equipped to handle them. America was the utopia, and like many others around the world, I wanted to come to this land of opportunity. I was particularly attracted to the American spirit. Rugged individualism, uncomplaining people who believed in principles, people who took responsibility for their actions, people who bootstrapped themselves out of difficulties. I believed that America was the land of plenty, and one could make a good life here. 

- In September 1987, I landed in Akron, Ohio. And the bubble burst. -

Akron was a town caught in a downward spiral. Every where there were signs of decline. The town that was midwife to the automobile revolution - Frank Seiberring incorporated the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron Ohio in 1898 - was dying a slow and painful death. 

Companies that had brought prosperity to Akron were a diminished lot. Goodrich vehicle tire factory was closed. Firestone was sold to Bridgestone, a Japanese competitor. Goodyear was still going, but now was a shadow of its stronger self. 

O'Neil's headquarter store in Akron, OH. Picture courtesy Wikipedia

When O'Neil's headquarter store in downtown Akron closed after 112 years, my fellow international students and I lamented the loss of a local institution. 'How could this happen?', we wondered, as the majestic building that housed O'Neil's stood a silent witness to Akron's steady decline. 

I wasn't alone in witnessing this ongoing decline in the heartland of America. I was a newcomer - the Americans living here had experienced it first hand. Pittsburgh, PA, Binghamton, NY, Detroit, MI - the folks in these towns had lived through this unending nightmare and were desperate to do something about it. It was all very depressing. 

I had come to participate in America's greatness. Instead, were we witnessing it's slow and painful death? The question hung in the air thick with sadness and I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to "make America great" again. So I decided to stay, and apply my effort help bring back some of the greatness.

Over the years, I have come to understand that some of the decline witnessed in the midwest is a natural process capitalism. Just like in nature everything as to die and be reborn, similarly in businesses old inefficient ideas must die and new ideas must be born out of innovation. It is the job of the leaders of the society to manage the process in such a way that pain and dislocation is minimized. And this is where our leaders seems to have failed us.

The decline in industrial manufacturing in the mid west was to a great extent, the product of competition and capitalism. But there is no doubt in my mind that it was also an outcome of blind adherence to "free market" dogma, laissez faire government attitude, corporate greed and a lack of empathy for those impacted the most from it's decline - the blue collar worker. While dogmatic devotees of Adam Smith resist any attempts to intervene in the markets, they failed to recognize that the invisible forces of capitalism were being steadily manipulated by a few other countries to their advantage. Other countries had their own dogmas, but they didn't hesitate to supplement their ideologies and embrace "some" free market ideas. Indeed they created an amalgam of socialism and capitalism to take advantage of opportunities in front of them. They set national goals and created policies to drive those national goals, thereby creating a competitive advantage that proved to be difficult to march. 

Why didn't US government set national policies to compete better with these upstarts? Some of it was hubris - don't tell us what to do, we know what we are doing - and some of it was the dogma that the invisible hand of market would take care of everything.   

I believe in free trade. But I also believe that a nation should set some goals for it's industry and it's people, helping it to drive innovation, maintain a competitive edge in critical industries, and promote policies that create a level playing field. We needed political leaders who would shape this kind of thinking. Yes, the 80's were better than 70s and 90s better than 80s. Obama era was good too in general, but we still had a lot of problems to solve, not in the least that we were losing our battle against China in manufacturing, trade and potentially on ideological front. 

So, when Trump's slogan 'Make America Great Again' started appearing, I thought it was good that some one was going to speak for American greatness and challenge the status quo. What ever his flaws, here was a business man who understood the problem that needs to be fixed. Like Churchill, I thought, perhaps Trump is the man for the job under present circumstances.

I admit, I had my doubts about the messenger. Was he real or was it all marketing gloss? The more I read about him, the more I started to doubt his story. Will he really deliver us to the promised land? Multiple bankruptcies, sordid personal life, bombast and bluster, childish personal attacks against his competitors - there was enough for me to question if he was the right leader. But the message was very appealing, especially to the people who had experienced their fortunes decline over the previous two/three decades. A turncoat democrat, Trump commandeered the Republican party machine and quickly emerged as the front runner preying on common man's insecurities, and appealing to their base instincts. 

When Trump won, most of us thought that the madness would stop and that the Republican establishment will bring some sanity to the discourse. Instead, the opposite happened. Scared of upsetting the great leader who was perfectly willing to engage in a mud fight, the establishment backed down, and here we are four years later, struggling to understand what went wrong. 

It is clear now, well into fourth year of Trump's presidency, that this experiment has failed. While the current administration may have meant to Make America Great Again, they didn't have the foggiest idea of how to make good on the promise. They focused more on tearing down much of what they were against, instead of focusing on building something that would move us forward. After almost four years, our allies hate us, our enemies are stronger and American reputation is in tatters. Our economy, which was the one thing going for us, is now in shambles thanks to mismanagement of COVID-19 response. The country has been set back while China, thanks to its post COVID 19 recovery, is on an economic ascendancy that will most likely hasten it's progress into a rival to American power.

So where does it leave us?  

Three weeks from now we have an opportunity to change course. And if the mood on the street is any guide, barring some unforeseen circumstances, this change will happen. The next administration will have to deal with many challenges, but the most urgent of it is to restore some faith in the American experiment. We need to show that we won't let set backs like these deter from our course. 

The challenge is immense. It's a big elephant, unlikely to be eaten in one bite. So here are a few priorities for the incoming administration:

1. Get the pandemic under control. We cannot have the situation that happened in 1st and 2nd quarter of 2020 repeat itself. It would be an economic disaster if that were to happen. Fortunately, with the vaccine trials coming to rapid accruals, the light may be appearing at the end of the tunnel
2. Get the economy going again. Having 40 million jobless is a recipe for social upheaval. While providing hand outs works for a while, no one likes to sit at home. We need to help the unemployed find jobs, and if that calls for initiating infrastructure projects, then let's begin those investments.
3. We need to repair our social compact. We must bring the American society together. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, Christians, Hindus, Sikh's, Muslims, Euro-Americans, Indo-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, we are all together in this Noah's Ark of a country, and we must believe that we are stronger together. We need all hands on deck, and our politicians must set aside partisanship and come together in the interest of nation's health.
4. We need to repair the relationships with our allies. Whether it is the war on terrorism or economic war, America cannot do things alone. We need our long standing allies to help prevent potential destabilizing events in Europe, and we need new alliances to contain potential threats in Asia.
5. Climate change is an existential threat and solving it requires global leadership. We must embrace the Paris accord and start engaging the rest of the global community. Let us leverage climate change as a business opportunity and through our innovation and ingenuity, let us lead the world towards reversing the course of global warming.

Of course there are many many other things that need to be addressed. But if we address these priorities, we have a chance in bringing back the luster to the American democratic experiment. And may be we may succeed in returning America back to greatness.

If you haven't voted yet, send in your main-in ballot. If early voting has started in your state, go vote in person. The act of exercising your vote is more important as anything else you will do. So VOTE.