The American Election Campaign: Soap Operas Obscure the Underlying Debate

“We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire.”--President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004.

“America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world and to all the inhabitants thereof.”—President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 2005.

“It is an empire [the American Empire]….without consciousness of itself as such. But that does not make it any less of an empire, that is, an attempt to permanently order the world of states and markets according to its national interests.”—Michael Ignatieff, former professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“The Republicans took the most ascendant nation since ancient Rome and drove it into the ditch.”--James Carville, CNN interview, Denver, August 26, 2008:

“America should never undertake a war unless we're prepared to do everything necessary to succeed.”--John McCain, announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, April 25, 2007.


Churning out high drama and heart wrenching personal stories, more suited to day-time soap operas than an election campaign, the Democrats and Republicans are conducting politics as only Americans can. Watching the party conventions, one is wise to keep a box of tissues at hand to wipe away the tears. Everyone was born in a log cabin or the urban equivalent. Such sacrifices, such impeccable role models for fellow citizens. Such republican virtue---I use the term in reference to the American Republic, not the party of George W. Bush. Have Hillary and Bill reconciled, and can both of them work for Barack? Will the young man from Alaska marry the Governor’s daughter? Will everyone have to take time out from the furious name calling to put on American hats and travel to Georgia (not Central Asian Georgia) to sandbag the coast when Hanna comes ashore?

When you put aside the tissues and turn off the nightly packaged human stories, you can dig down deep to unearth the underlying narrative in this election campaign. And it is historic.

The seminal debate is about the position of the United States in the world. Embroiled in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, with no end in sight in either war, facing regional and global challenges from Iran, from militarily resurgent Russia, and from China with its appetite for global influence, the United States is over-extended. Without being consciously aware of it, Americans are up against challenges that are remarkably similar to those that confronted the great empires of the past. The military entanglements of the United States, and the related indebtedness of the country, have brewed an economic cocktail that is much more potent than the hangover from a run of the mill recession.

A few of the ingredients in this brew:

A federal government debt that spirals toward ten trillion dollars, with neither the Republicans or the Democrats proposing policies to bring it under control. Americans pay over four hundred billion dollars to fund the interest payments on the debt.

A military budget of over 500 billion dollars annually.

Oil imports that hit Americans in the pocketbook to the tune of 500 billion dollars a year.

U.S. trade and current account deficits running over 800 billion dollars and 700 billion dollars respectively this year.

The dollar has lost ground in recent years against other major currencies such as the Euro that imperil the dollar's position as the reserve currency of the world.

The volunteer armed forces of the United States are stressed and stretched. Fighting men and women have been ground down by repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recruitment is down. The military is ill-equipped to respond to new threats.

The United States has lost respect and sympathy almost everywhere in the world.

As they face declining incomes, the credit crunch, and the skyrocketing price of energy, Americans are experiencing the costs of an American global strategy that has gone awry.

All of this adds up to imperial overstretch, a condition faced by empires over the course of history. And it doesn't help that America's political culture makes its unthinkable for American political leaders to acknowledge that the United States has constructed a worldwide empire.

In the United States, the debate about empire is blurred by the unwillingness of political leaders to acknowledge the reality of empire. Along with the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence lies at the heart of the American civic religion of national values. To state that the United States has established an empire is to blaspheme against the Declaration. But a close examination of the facts shows that creating an empire is exactly what Americans have done.

While America has often been compared to ancient Rome, in important ways its empire more closely resembles that of the ancient Athenians. The Athenians, in a perverse way, which is highly reminiscent of the practice of the United States, imposed their own model constitution on city-states they forced into their empire.

A nation that will not admit that it is an empire is not well suited to rule other peoples over the long term. This is especially true of the nation's elite, those who must insist on the martial discipline, the self-sacrifice, and the willingness to shoulder the human and financial burdens of empire during difficult times. No elite in history has been more resistant to paying higher taxes than the American elite, a political reality that makes bearing the burdens of empire much more difficult. The failure of the Roman and French upper classes to pay higher taxes played a major role in the demise of their empires.

Through a glass darkly, past all the personal dramas and the endless spinning of the party doctors, there is a tale that will be apparent to future generations if not our own.