BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen
In the UK, I am frequently struck by the number of people who hope that the EU will go out of its way to help the UK rejoin the bloc, because the circumstances around the referendum were so flawed, the vote itself was so close, many of them personally did not support Brexit, and because growing numbers of voters appear now to regret their decision. But, this is asking the EU to overlook the long history of British ambivalence towards it, and the repeated slurs and lies circulated by British politicians about the UK-EU relationship, which created the toxic environment in which the Vote Leave campaign succeeded.
Even if public opinion is changing, the EU cannot ignore the fact that a significant part of the UK’s political establishment still backs Brexit, and in some quarters, would even like to go further, for example, by taking the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Unfortunately, because I count myself amongst those yearning to overturn Brexit, the EU simply cannot give special treatment to a country which remains so conflicted, and still does not display at a political level the unified seriousness of purpose required to fully mend relations with the bloc.
The same applies to how the rest of the world witnesses, and must deal with, the United States today. It is not enough for many Americans, genuinely appalled by the Trump administration, to say that they personally did not vote for this. It is not enough for many Americans to say that they personally do not agree with what the administration is doing. It is not enough for many Americans to say that the Trump administration does not represent what they personally believe America to be as a country.
The world can only deal with what America is, right now, as a country.
And right now, America IS a country led by a man who seems unable to distinguish between allies and autocrats, who IS slapping tariffs on America’s traditional democratic partners, who IS forging deals with countries whose authoritarian nature is the antithesis of everything the “real” America is supposed to represent, such as Russia, and IS bullying Ukraine, the victim of Russia’s war of aggression against it, to change its heroic wartime leader, Zelensky, and accept dishonourable defeat, despite the dire consequences for its land and people.
Right now, America IS a country which threatened to attack a NATO ally, Denmark, unless it handed over a piece of its sovereign territory, Greenland, to America in perpetuity; which IS bombing boats off the coast of Latin America in violation of maritime law, and thereby conducting extrajudicial killings without any due process; and which DID attack a third country, Iran, without any legal authorisation, either by international bodies or its own Congress.
Right now, America – supposedly the beacon of democracy in the world – IS a country which is meddling in the election processes of other democracies to support favoured candidates; is turning its back on the international institutions set up after world war two to maintain peace and security and alleviate human suffering, is rejecting the international laws designed to prevent mass atrocities and human rights abuses, and is actively undermining the international criminal courts established to hold perpetrators of war crimes and genocide to account.
Right now, America – the richest country on the planet – IS a country which abruptly ended its own humanitarian and development aid to dozens of countries around the world, which independent studies have assessed has already caused the deaths of over 600,000 people globally, most of them children, with millions more excess deaths projected to occur by 2030; and also ended its support for many international organisations and NGOs working to support the most vulnerable and needy people on the planet.
Right now, America – a country founded on immigration – IS a country whose official forces in the course of anti-immigration raids have repeatedly fired at unarmed civilians in the streets; torn children away from their parents; seized thousands of undocumented individuals who have committed no other crimes and detained them in appalling conditions for months with little legal recourse; and IS a country which deports minors to places where they have no known connections or previous lived experience.
Right now, America – a country which claims to cherish the value of human life, down to the unborn child – IS a country which continues to do nothing to halt the scourge of gun violence across the nation, which has led to the deaths of over 416,000 people in the past decade, many of them children, including through mass shootings in schools.
Right now, America – the location of many of the world’s top scientific institutes – IS a country which is turning its back on decades of medical advances to make life-saving vaccinations harder or more expensive to get; which continues to keep medical care unaffordable for many people on low incomes or out of work; and is cutting back funding or dismantling its leading programmes on global diseases and pandemics.
Right now, America – home to some of the world’s most beautiful natural parks and wildernesses – IS a country which is rejecting the conclusions of most climate science experts that the planet is facing devastating global warming, largely due to the excessive use of fossil fuels; is weakening standards designed to make machines more fuel efficient; and is opening up more areas of its protected territory to allow for greater exploitation of its precious natural resources.
Right now, America – which codified in its constitution the concept of the separation and balance of powers – IS a country whose legislative body, Congress, failed, twice, to conclude the impeachment of a President guilty of gross abuse of office; which continues to approve the appointment of manifestly unfit individuals to positions of high office in government; which has ceded many of its powers and its prerogatives to the Executive, such as over international trade and the conduct of war; and has repeatedly failed to rein in the excesses of the administration, whether over the conduct of immigration raids, rolling back of institutional safeguards; and abuse of office for personal gain.
Right now, America – whose byword is respect for the rule of law – IS a country whose Supreme Court has systematically rolled back protections for women and vulnerable minorities; validated the dismantling of government bodies and removal of the heads of independent executive agencies without cause; allowed controversial deportations to third countries to proceed; and granted the Presidency sweeping immunity from prosecution.
Right now, America – a country which likes to posit itself as the moral arbiter of the world – IS led by a man who, together with his cronies and hangers on, is clearly using his position to enrich himself and his family; is actively thwarting investigations into the association of many prominent individuals, including the President himself, with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein; and continues to pardon dozens of convicted criminals for the flimsiest of reasons, including those guilty of an unprecedented assault on the nation’s Capitol on January 6 2021.
Right now, America, barely a week after the barbarous incident of a botched execution of a convicted female criminal by lethal injection, IS a country which is proposing to livestream the shooting by firing squad of a paraplegic man, putting it in the company of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the ayatollahs in Iran – thankfully now rescinded in response to a massive uproar at home and abroad; and IS a country led by a President who thinks it appropriate to mock the tragic mauling to death of a mentally disturbed man by a tiger, and repost images of that killing, against the express wishes of the grieving parents.
Look in the mirror, America. Perhaps most of you do abhor what is going on. Perhaps most of you are doing your best to resist. Perhaps most of you are hoping for change to come through elections. But it is not yet enough.
Until you succeed in definitively ending these grotesque actions, definitively holding the perpetrators accountable, and definitively ensuring such actions cannot be repeated, collectively, this IS who you are, IS how the rest of the world sees you, and IS how it will need to treat with you.
If the “Real America” is not this, then it needs to do more than just say so. It needs to BE so.
