A great change-maker in America once said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. How about a house on fire?
What is most painful is the feeling of being powerless as you watch something so beloved as your homeland crumble to the ground. Yet, what recourse do we have as ordinary citizens? After all, I’m not a billionaire, nor are my parents. So, as I watch as hoards of these supposedly intelligent and sophisticated titans of industry tear apart the Constitution page by page, I can’t help but feel the flames.
It has been less than two months since Trump began his second term, and, already, there is a marked shift in the way that the world perceives America. Alliances that have stood for decades, and even centuries, now appear feeble, and it is difficult to watch as diplomacy has been abandoned in favor of demagoguery and blatant abuses of power. The United States, in all of its might, cannot stand alone in the 21st century. Our history is far from perfect, but it has always been forged by those who saw the grander vision, who knew that the path to the future is paved on compromise, not brute force. To see it all cast away so quickly is not only breathtaking, but downright painful.
As someone who has spent a good deal of my academic and professional career involved in the post-Soviet space, and with many friends and colleagues who have devoted their lives to diplomacy and learning more about how people outside of the United States live, it is truly disturbing to see their efforts, knowledge, and expertise dismissed so curtly. Since the first day that Putin stepped into power in Moscow, his mission has been clear - he, and his cohort of oligarchs, have always been dead-set on reclaiming the grandeur and lost valor of the Soviet Union, no matter the cost. So, to watch as an American president and vice president scolded a democratically elected leader of a war-torn country at odds with what has, for decades, been a serious adversary of the United States, was to feel that all of the time and effort on the part of America’s diplomatic system had amounted to nothing.
In fact, when a reporter asked Zelenskyy why he wasn’t wearing a suit, the Ukrainian leader used the word ‘costume’ in his response, which is actually the cognate used in Ukrainian for the word ‘suit.’ This little nuance, something that otherwise might have gone overlooked, is precisely why we need now, more than ever, a strong emphasis on foreign relations, and a group of Americans who understand the importance of these intricacies and nuances. In a world of perpetual war and bloodshed, America cannot only draw its power from the might of its military - we have more to offer than that.
Beyond how America is dealing with its foreign counterparts, a war is likewise waging within its borders. However, the battlefront is on the screens of our phones and computers, on the rumors we catch wind of at the office, and in the spin peddled by a compromised network of media juggernauts. The truth has become little more than whim, and there is virtually no way of convincing anyone of its presence or importance. When an unelected billionaire is given free reign to gut government agencies at the same time that he benefits to the tune of tens of billions in contracts paid for by American taxpayers, we can no longer claim to be a transparent democracy that defends against corruption and conflict of interest. What is even more troubling still is the grip that Elon Musk holds over social media, not only as the proprietor of one of the world’s largest social networks, X, but as a constant fixture across all platforms. Whether it’s a clip of him brandishing a gaudy chainsaw with the president of Argentina, or presiding over the once-sacred ritual of a presidential cabinet meeting, Musk’s influence feels ubiquitous. Yet, he seems to face no accountability. After all, the Trump administration refuses to even name him as the official head of the department created in his image - DOGE.
When I look around at some of my fellow Americans, who appear so gleeful as federal jobs are cut by the tens of thousands, and meaningless trade wars are ignited that promise to bring economic hardship to themselves and their families, I can’t help but wonder when someone will arrive to save us all. Oftentimes, it is in the midst of a crisis that a leader arises. Alas, it was Churchill who faced down the tyrannical German empire in the wake of sure defeat. Martin Luther King Jr. embarked on his mission to fight against a system that had been aligned against his people for centuries, facing sure peril all the while. Even Zelenskyy, who certainly never imagined he would be facing off against a dictator without a shred of respect for the sovereignty of other nations nor human life, has certainly risen to the challenge, only to be chastised for not wearing ‘proper attire’ by his so-called ‘allies.’
Even more frustrating still is the conviction that I have that these antagonistic actions by the United States will haunt us far into the future. In fact, by weakening alliances and allowing a felonious Trump administration to execute on its hare-brained policies is to cede the reigns to other nations who have no choice but to fill the void left in the wake of America’s absence from the stage of global relations. China has already vowed to ‘fight to the end’ in a trade war against the United States, even noting that ‘…by the end of Trump’s second term, America’s global standing and credibility image will have gone down.’ Canada’s newly minted Prime Minister has pledged to maintain retaliatory tariffs and measures against Trump indefinitely. Europe, NATO, and Ukraine have moved on as well, with European leaders scrambling to shore up funding and support for a proxy war with Russia without any of the support the United States has historically provided. In record time, the incompetence of the Trump administration has managed to prove to the world, time and again, that America is no longer a reliable partner, in trade or in warfare.
So, it feels as though we have been sentenced to watch as the greatness of our nation is engulfed by abject depravity, fathomless greed, and unconscionable ignorance. America has lost its way, and the leaders of the past would certainly be disappointed at how this has all come to pass.
My only hope can be that the fire gives way to embers, and from the ashes, we shall rebuild.
