“I hope you are deported: a trip through the American dystopia”, Book by journalist Jamil Chad, recently released, is the most sharp portrait of US decay. The hitherto acclaimed nation as the most powerful democracy in the world is portrayed after a journey of thousands of kilometers made by the experienced Chad, crossing the north to the south, passing to ten states, crossing the American border with Mexico, talking to refugees and fanatical followers of Donald Trump, including Jake (Jacob Chansley), known as the “Capitol Viking, which He was famous for his clothes in the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, thus described by Jamil Chad who interviewed him in a Phoenix restaurant: “Animal hood adorned with horns, naked torso and face painted with the colors of the US flag.”
The erosion of US democracy and its social fabric crumbles the image of the nation as a headlight of freedom, democracy and prosperity. The nation that won two world wars, which led Europe’s reconstruction by the Marshall Plan, which put the man on the moon and exported to the world the promise of the “American dream” now faces clear signs of decay, with deep cracks in its political building. Palpable signs that the American dream no longer sustained, in the summary made by filmmaker Walter Salles in the preface to the book: Increased absolute poverty; contraction of averages; Mass deportation of immigrants; censorship of public and private universities; Suspension of funding for scientific research; fierce attack on all forms of minorities; Deregulation of social media as a social control tool; Climate negationism and neutralization of the legislative power.
It is appropriate to emphasize that this is not just a cyclic oscillation, like so many others in American history, but a conjunction of crises that reach economical economy, politics, culture and morality. The postwar economic miracle has emerged the most robust middle class in history, support of democracy and social cohesion. But today, the financialization of the economy, automation and globalization has shifted industrial jobs, while the richest 1% accumulates records of national wealth. Indebted families, young people suffocated by student loans and workers stuck with precarious jobs symbolize the stroke of the social pact.
American politics has plunged into an unprecedented polarization since the civil war. Democrats and Republicans seem to dwell parallel universes without convergence points. The invasion of the Capitol, by followers of Donald Trump, exposed to the world the fragility of the institutions of a nation that has always seen itself as guardian of democracy. Confidence in the instances of power – Congress, Supreme Court and even in the press – plummeting year by year.
Drug epidemics such as Fentanil, explosion of homeless people in rich cities, chronic armed violence and educational decline complete the dark portrait. Meanwhile, ideological disputes transform schools and universities into cultural battlefields, eroding consensus on basic values.
In the international scenario, the US no longer enjoy the undeniable hegemony of the twentieth century. China’s rise, global multipolarity and failures in the Middle East expose the American capacity to dictate the planet’s directions.
History teaches that civilizations do not collapse overnight. The West, Spengler would say, knows cycles of ascension and decline. What you see today in the US may just be another reinvention chapter or, perhaps, the foreshadowing of a transition to a world where the overpower of the past becomes just another power among others.
Jamil Chad is to cut:
– I witnessed a democracy on the tightrope;
– I was airless in the face of the asphyxiation of lasting achievements obtained by women, the black movement and other minority groups;
– I witnessed in the eyes of immigrants measured him in his souls torn by the inability to be accepted as human beings;
– I felt the power of misinformation and its shaking in the social fabric of a nation;
– But I also saw resistance, indignation, tears and fight in the streets of the streets.
Sitting in the power armchair, an undeal and arrogant leader gets to the point of marketing campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which would be the largest laurea macula at all times.
Will American democracy rescue your ideas?
The future will say whether America is still able to reinvent its own dream.
Gaudêncio Torquato is a writer, journalist, ECA-USP teacher and consultant