Once again, the American people are living in a time of utter concern for their economy. While the American government speaks in terms of its military victories over agents of terror, the ordinary American taxpayer might not be aware that he or she shall continue to shell out for his or her government’s military spending.
Through the decades, however, the American people continue to learn the lessons that have to be learned, that of being democratically empowered to be stronger than their government.
Eisenhower’s politics, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and Reaganomics have all been huge phenomena that have had great impact on the lives of the American people. At the very least, these five social, political, and economic events have helped the American people determine their wisdom and resolve.
The United States of America aims to be a global hegemony where many nations would be subordinate to. The trend for such has shown. This bid for hegemony has always taken the form of wars. Military and foreign aid that was rising in demand was the main reason for Eisenhower’s failure to reduce federal spending. The anti-Communism war that the US waged in Vietnam, the biggest proof of how US reacted to the Communist threat, debilitated the US economy at more than $167 billion dollars a year in war costs. Reaganomics’ tax reform policies glowingly included large-scale deficit spending on the military, thereby significantly increasing public debt.
George W. Bush’s War on Terror has been a massively-funded military expedition against terrorists, thereby giving birth to such a global sociopolitical phenomenon called Islamophobia. This US-backed colossal global war against terrorism continues to hurt the pockets of each and every American taxpayer.
The American people have always been wary of their government. Eisenhower ended up with the image of a ‘do-nothing’ president. Reagan fell out of grace because his economic reforms consequently hurt the American public. Public skepticism and cynicism eventually befell the government proponents of the war in Vietnam. Total distrust in the powers of the White House was all that was earned by Nixon and the Watergate scandal.
The Watergate scandal started the eventual weakening of the power of the US presidency, so much so that big business had taken the reins of power in the United States. With the current US financial crisis and global economic meltdown that springs from it, the global public is now wary of the power and influence of big business. Greed is now a four-letter word.
The American people have shown their discerning intelligence and wisdom through the decades. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is proof that there is such a thing as Americans’ collective decision to harness collective action towards a just society that is not subservient to the excesses of power. No matter what government and whoever president is put in place at the White House, it is the American people that sway the American fate. The will of the people was ultimately more powerful than the power of their government. Conversely, no American government was ever more powerful than the collective will of the American people. Truly, the United States of America has been a solid proof of the power and influence of the citizenry. In a word, democracy.
