Trump's Retreat From The World Is Nothing New

 

We had dinner with a European friend the other night and he spent most of the evening wondering how the America he had grown up with had become so inward looking, so isolationist. It’s no wonder he was confused. He and I are part of the post-WW II generation when the United States assumed, more or less by default, a global leadership role with programs like the Marshall Plan, NATO, AID and strong support for international institutions. To be honest, the options for the rest of the world weren’t all that appealing. Americans might be overbearing monoglots with scant interest in or regard for the nuances of global relationships. But they weren’t Russian.

            Even as Europe and other parts of the world recovered, grew stronger and developed their own agendas no one doubted that the United States remained pre-eminent. Of course there were leaders like Nehru, Nasser, Tito or even Charles De Gaulle who often clashed with the US and challenged that pre-eminence. But few people seriously suggested that the Americans retreat back to North America, pull up the draw bridge and forget about the rest of the world. Like it or not the US acted as a type of security blanket for much of the world.

            Now, with the Trump administration retreating from a global role as fast as it can a lot of people in my generation are wondering just how this happened. How can the United States throw off the role of leadership so casually? Who will fill the vacuum? Where did this isolationism come from?

            Actually, it is not a recent arrival at all. It has always been there, has always been part of the American fabric. What Trump is spouting now is nothing new. People forget that until WW II America was a deeply isolationist country. All during the 1930s large America First organizations sprang up fuelled by the incendiary pro-Hitler, pro-Mussolini, anti-Semitic radio broadcasts of Father Charles Coughlin and were adored by millions across the country. It took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States to turn the tide.

America First rally in the 1930s

            But all Father Coughlin did, like Trump, was to tap into a deep well spring of distrust and enmity that many in the New World felt toward the Old World. ‘Who needs them and all their problems? We’ve got more than enough to take care ourselves? To hell with them.’ In a country founded and strengthened by waves of immigrants it is ironic that the first manifestation of this mood was in the 1840s when a powerful anti-immigrant force called derisively the Know Nothings sprang up and became a political force suppressed only by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860.

Know Nothing motto from 1840s 

            ‘Not our problem’ was the dominant American theme for most of WW I. Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 on a pledge to keep America out of the war. It was only the result Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare that finally brought the Americans into the war in 1917. But then, led by Republican Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, the country rejected the League of Nations – the center piece of Wilson’s post-war plans.

League of Nations? You must be joking.

            After WW II these nativist instincts were suppressed but never went away. As long as the Cold War raged there was general – even if reluctant – agreement that American military and economic presence all over the world was necessary to counter the Russian threat.

            With the end of the Cold War and its bi-polar global power structure, the rise of China along with other regional economic powers like the European Union, and seemingly endless inconclusive military conflicts the post-WW II global consensus began to fracture along old, familiar lines. Trump – like other so-called nativist populists around the world – recognized and capitalized this trend. In the 1930s the code word was cosmopolitan, i.e. internationalist, multi-lingual, and worst of all Jewish.  Now the term globalization encompasses all those old phobias – along with many new ones - and has become the code word for all the country’s problems – especially by aggrieved white males.

            Jobs lost in the Midwest? Blame globalization. America out-voted in the UN and other international organizations? Blame the ingrates that come with globalization? Good money poured down the rat hole of so-called international aid? What a joke! Disaster relief? Only if they side with the US on many other issues. So-called allies disagreeing with the US? Nothing but a bunch of poncey ingrates! All they want to do is bleed us dry!

            Lost in these diatribes is the small fact of continuing American domination of much of the world’s economy despite the undoubted rise of China. American financial institutions, tech companies, pharmaceutical companies, entertainment companies, and many others span the globe. The power of the American Treasury Department and the US Dollar is unparalleled. In many ways the Secretary of the Treasury has more international power than the president. Because of the unique position of the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency the Treasury Department has the ability to levy heavy fines and sanctions against international banks that are seen to violate American regulations on things like money laundering and terrorist financing.

            In large part the election this November will reflect this sharp divide. Those who value positive American engagement with the rest of the world will most likely vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. Those for whom global engagement spells nothing but trouble and want to build walls and pull up the draw bridge will undoubtedly side with President Trump. The stakes – and not just for America – are high. We shall see.