The Uniqueness of America's Nationalism

America’s economic crisis has let up a bit. The Obama administration’s temporary raising of the debt ceiling was first approved by the House of Representatives, then it was passed by the Senate on Wednesday. The issue is actually more political than economic and the opposition party, the Republicans, was focused only on obstructing the Obama administration. It is noteworthy that since the Republican Party has a majority in the House of Representatives, they have prevented Obama from getting his way on this piece of legislation. Another fact is also intriguing.

In America, there is a third party named the Grand Old Party.* This party has nothing to do with the masses. Rather, it is America’s traditionalists, conservatives and wealthy who are associated with it. This party’s job is just to pester whichever of the two main parties is in power by plotting with the opposition party. The Grand Old Party was behind all the stalemates seen during the discussion about raising the debt ceiling. Americans, however, are nationalist, and political parties are as well, so politics in the U.S. is not like politics here.

Now that the American’s economic crisis has let up, the communists of the world who went around saying that the crisis will never pass and that the U.S. will suffer another recession must be severely disappointed. It is true, however, that capitalism is proving to be a failure. No capitalist economy can meet all the needs and interests of every citizen in any country of the world equally. It can be seen in any capitalist country that the economic gap between the rich and the poor is very wide.

Take India as an example. According to the Asit Sengupta Council report, 76 percent of the country’s citizens live on an income of 20 rupees a day, but there is also a very wealthy class that spends from 1,500 to more than 20,000 rupees on a single meal. Private security guards who stand outside of tall, shiny buildings might make a minimum of 600 rupees or a maximum of 5,000. There has yet to be a single private security company in India that pays more than 5,000 rupees for a 12-hour shift. On the other hand, there are quite a few people who make millions per day. It can be said that the wages of the skilled are higher, but this argument cannot be accepted because it is the system’s responsibility to give each citizen the opportunity to develop his or her abilities, and the capitalist system only provides this opportunity to those who have money. Thus, those who have money become more skilled.

We will not delve into this issue; this contradiction is the subject of another discussion. I would just like to say that since America is considered to be the leader of capitalism, this economic contradiction is even greater there. When the intellectual, communist types of the world began to hungrily talk about the American economic crisis, saying that America will again fall into a recession, it was reported that the American multinational corporation Apple had more money than even the Federal Reserve. This fact proves that capitalism has also failed in America. The measure that Congress passed to raise the debt ceiling is just a temporary solution to America’s economic crisis. The permanent solution will be for the American administration to take the initiative of liberating itself from capitalism. It is also true that America will never do so.

As such, this subject is not up for discussion either. Only America will know whether it has to change its system or not, but this potential solution to the American crisis has many implications for countries like India. America’s politics aren’t based on the value of the country. However, in Indian politics, which is played out between the ruling and opposition parties in the name of democracy, the country itself is basically offered as a wager. For example, Jammu and Kashmir’s Article 370 and the uniform civil code of India are both issues that all political parties should be able to discuss without worrying about getting votes, but that can’t happen in this country.** Consequently, these two issues have been gradually weakening India.

Another one of these issues is affirmative action quotas. It is true that there is nothing wrong with giving members of castes, which have been exploited for centuries, opportunities to be incorporated into mainstream society. However, we have to look at whether the castes, being given such opportunities, really reap any benefits. The truth is that because of quotas that have been in place for 60 years, Dalits and Other Backward Classes have flourished, benefiting from the quotas while taking rights away from their oppressed brothers.*** If a survey is conducted, it would be found out that there are really only two or three classes of Dalits and other groups that continually benefit from quotas. Because of this, those who are actually oppressed have been pushed out of sight.

Still, if we examine some of these castes that have been benefiting from such reservations for six decades, we see that these benefits have gone to only a few families. In other words, one family takes advantage of the quotas generation after generation, and other families get nothing out of them. Because of this, the Supreme Court formulated the “creamy Layer” theory, but our politicians raised the cut-off income from 150,000 rupees a year to 350,000 rupees.**** This means that we should reconsider the quota policy. However, because there is little nationalism among India’s people and its politicians, the policy has gone unchanged, compromising national interests. America never compromises its national interests. Thus, we witnessed a political battle between the ruling party and the opposition when it came time to raise the debt ceiling, but somehow, both sides saw that politics could not be allowed to ruin the economy and ultimately raised the ceiling.

At that moment, America was a model for the rest of the world.

*Translator’s Note: The author mistakenly believes that the Grand Old Party is a third party when in fact, the GOP is just another name for the Republican Party.

**Translator’s Note: Article 370 of the Indian Constitution grants autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, areas claimed by both Indian and Pakistan, giving rise to conflict. The uniform civil code of India refers to the idea of a civil code that supersedes laws based on religion, caste or tribe.

***Translator’s Note: Dalits are people of low caste. Other Backward Classes are disadvantaged groups identified by the government based on socioeconomic factors.

****Translator’s Note: The “creamy layer” refers to wealthier people within the Other Backward Classes who are not eligible for affirmative action.