For about forty years (1950-1990) the United States of America fought the cold war against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And they were some of, and many say, the best years the U.S. ever had. We grew stronger, more prosperous, more socially equal and in general better in almost every way. We became the unquestioned world leader and to some degree the idol and envy of every other country and society on the planet. In short; a swell place to live.
We did all this under several different Washington administrations. Beginning with the practical administrations of Truman (a Democrat) and Eisenhower (a Republican); that held the line against international Communism in Korea and by making NATO a real deterrent. Then we saw the foreign policy conservative/socially progressive Democrats Kennedy and Johnson; during which we put men on the moon while keeping Soviet missiles out of Cuba and fighting a badly run war in Vietnam in an ill conceived effort to hold back Communism from tumbling the “dominoes” of Asia. This was followed by the bizarre administration of Richard Millhouse Nixon; which reigned in American big business through the creation of the E P A, almost destroyed our democracy through the imperial manner in which Nixon tried to avoid responsibility for the Watergate cover-up; and did all this while trying to make peace with Communist China with one hand and hold the Soviets off with the other. James Earl Carter gave us an administration which seemed to lack confidence or will power regarding America’s ability to defend our embassy prisoners in Iran or to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with anything other than a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow. He only lasted one term.
The U.S. reached its zenith in the cold war under Ronald Reagan. He redefined and reinvigorated America as the “can do” nation we had always thought of ourselves as and was determined to beat international Communism, which he dubbed the “Evil Empire” at any game they chose to play. He pushed an expensive military buildup which caused the upshot in American debt, but had the common sense to see this had to be followed by several tax increases to keep the U.S. on the path of economic solvency. In the end, mostly because Soviet Communism was a sham of an economic system, they went bankrupt and belly up under right after he left office. Under his V.P. George Bush (the First), the Soviet Union dissolved and Russia has been mostly a floundering country since.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we had no real military competition to get in our way. Due to our over developed military might we had built up in taking the Soviet’s down; we fought and easily won a short Gulf War and kept the monarchies of the Middle East in control of the oil supply. We were the world’s only “super power”.
So after forty years we had “beaten” Communism, at least the Western brand, essentially by the might of our economic power. America grew much richer, with the rising tide raising most (but not all) economic boats right through most of the 1990’s. We lead the world in the communications revolution with the U.S. inventing, manufacturing and marketing computers and upscale consumer electronics of all sorts. We even started to make better, smaller, more efficient cars and stopped what was feared was going to be the demise of the American auto industry due to the domination by Japan. Unfortunately the First Gulf War allowed oil prices to stabilize at a low price; and we went back to our old gas-guzzling ways with SUVs.
So in the end it was our world’s strongest economic might that allowed America to successfully out create, produce and spend our way to winning the Cold War. Although we claimed to want to save the people who were or would be enslaved by the evils of Communism; in the end that wasn’t really true. Once the Soviet Union and their satellites were no longer a threat to our partners and allies in Western Europe or the Middle East; we didn’t really care very much what happened to their populations during their attempts to transit some form of democratic-capitalism. Most of the European countries managed to make the switch over, sometimes with the help of Western Europe and American investment due to their lower wages. In Russia the place became overrun with gangsters looting what was left of the county’s wealth, with no noticeable tears in this country for the further impoverishment of the long suffering people of that star crossed country.
We never really cared about all the people enslaved under Communism. We were only concerned that a large successful Communist country could challenge our economic dominance of the world’s economy. We called them names and rallied America to fight them with guns and then later on the production line. We made them the bogey man of our worst economic and social nightmares because their system used totalitarian control over their people and made them work for the state. Their people suffered working for the state while in our democratic-capitalism our people prospered working for themselves and were rewarded with two cars in every garage and four color televisions in their split levels.
Then along came China. Communist China, although every bit and more of a repressive, enslaving, totalitarian regime as the old Soviets; was defined and treated as an opportunity. However it was only an opportunity for a few very wealth American corporations and individuals to use the Chinese slave labor population and drain the American people’s consumer market economy. The Communists of China, who shot their own people by the thousands in Tiananmen Square, were no longer an “Evil Empire”, but were presented as a huge market as a trading partner. But after 35 consecutive years of ever growing trade deficits with China, the myth of our economic relationship with them is exposed for the fraud it always was. China’s whole economic model is based on having a billion (literally) slave laborers working for no more than subsistence wages in order to undersell everyone, everywhere and eventually force all competition off the table. Once the dominate a market or commodity, they can make huge profits with their slave labor costs and their unethical corner cutting and low quality control standards.
They sell toys painted with lead paint, tainted pharmaceutical ingredients that killed over 80 people, building materials that give off toxic fumes for the repairs in New Orleans and a whole long list of bogus and dangerous products into the American market. They dilute baby formula with poisonous ingredients for sale in their own country. They use inferior concrete construction that killed tens of thousands of their students in school collapses during their earthquakes. They force their own workers by the millions to go to wherever they need them by eliminating work permits where they want people to move from and only issuing them where they need the labor. They won’t allow more than one child per couple. They force women to have abortions in order to keep their jobs. They lock up or chain their workers their beds at some factories. They have no worker safety and health laws at all. They contaminate their (and our) environment severely.
And with all this China is not called an “Evil Empire”; they are called a trading partner. This despite the fact that the trade is so very unfair and so very destructive to the American economy. The well paying American jobs lost to industries China wants to drive out of the U.S. like steel and consumer electronic manufacture, among many others; account for millions of unemployed U.S. citizens. The staggering dollar amount of U.S. debt owed to China due to this unfair trade is in the hundreds of billions. It is so large it has a part in controlling U.S. foreign and domestic policy; virtually always in a direction that is not in the best interest of the vast majority of Americans. The amount of money in campaign contributions made to U.S. public officials of both parties directly by China and indirectly through China’s American partners; are nothing but blatant bribery to influence American economic and trade policy in favor of China and those few wealthy American individual and corporations allied with them.
America won the Old Cold War against Soviet Communism with our inventive, entrepreneurial and industrial might. We are losing the New Cold War with China by giving away the industrial capabilities that made the products created by our inventive and entrepreneurial genius and spirit. And the intellectual property we don’t give to the Chinese government run industries, they steal with their government’s blessing and protection. We aren’t winning our Cold War to maintain our economic position in the world; because we aren’t even really fighting. A handful of powerful, influential and connected people and industrial entities, that have been seduced by the prospect of short term substantial personal economic gain, have been willing, even eager, to trade away the economic and social well being of 98% of the American people. Their corruption of our politicians has allowed the anti-democratic and obviously absurd ‘Citizens United’ Supreme Court Ruling (which says any person, company or foreign entity can give politicians unrestricted amounts of money) to stand; without legislation to control or eliminate such corruption.
We need (and maybe are beginning to see) a broadly based movement by the people of this country to truly take back control of the government from the handful of wealthy individuals and entities that have kidnapped it further their own enrichment. It can be led by new faces from outside of the political realm, or our current political representatives if they are ready and willing to walk away from the private money trying to corrupt public business. If these leaders were shown that they would achieve enough support from the American voting public, they would step up and would be able to tell the powers now in place that the current American pattern of corruption must end. No matter how much money the private corruptors pony up, they cannot defeat the American citizenry at the voting booth. When Americans vote their own real self interest instead of those of the few wealthy entities trying to control this country, the numbers are 100 to 1 in favor of the American people.
We can make things here again. We can have full and productive employment for every American. We can enjoy the fruits and benefits of our own labor. We can share the rewards and responsibilities of our democratic/capitalist systems fairly between labor, management and ownership. We can rebuild the America that won the Cold War with the Soviet Union by being the productive, self sufficient, cooperative economy and society we were just a generation ago. We can hold our own, protect ourselves, retain our values, quality of life and standard of living in our current Cold War with China. We just need to get the economic obstacles the few, the greedy and un-American entities have tried to put in our way. We have the governmental mechanisms to achieve that goal. We have the vote which allows us to put into the government; those who will represent the vast majority’s best interest. We have the communications technology to organize those votes. In short we have the motivation, opportunity and means to help ourselves. All we have to do is; Do It and Right Now!