American 'Soft Power' Isa Victim of the Budget Crisis

In Calvados, the American cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer sits on Omaha Beach. This is a hotspot for nostalgia tourism in France. Every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter has been received there to pay homage to the sacrifice that thousands of young soldiers made to liberate Europe from the barbarous Nazis. Barack Obama will undoubtedly receive the same welcome to mark the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landing on June 6, 2014. Arriving in Colleville-sur-Mer is like arriving in the U.S. without any time difference or fatigue; the architecture of the buildings and space so immediately whisks you the thousands of miles across the Atlantic. However, like all public places dependent on American management, the Colleville cemetery has been closed for almost two weeks. In all its absurdity and odiousness, the America of today has taken hostage the noble and respectable America of the past.

American “soft power” is just as much a victim of these regular intervals of absurdity, which come from a system that pushes artificial rules and the suicidal ideology of a group of men and women under the banner of the tea party and other ultraconservative forces, like the Heritage Foundation. America also pays the price for the small, political moves of a large number of elected Republicans, who, first and foremost, think of winning re-election in 2014. These Republicans need the unwavering support of the oppressive, ultraconservative minorities. It does not matter that America is now the laughing stock of the world, since the president could not even meet his Chinese counterpart at the recent Asia-Pacific summit. Their voters are conservative before being Republican; thus, they will follow them in that direction. The “essence” of America is more important than its public “displays.”

It is important to point out that members of the tea party are not opposed to any federal assistance that they themselves can collect. They are the “true Americans,” hard-working and honest; it is the help available to others, such as immigrants, the unemployed and undocumented, that makes them scream bloody murder. Furthermore, behind the obsession for a balanced budget and invectives against an all-powerful federal government, there is nothing more than ordinary racism. Sadly, it would be quite banal, if it did not have such an impact on the image and operation of what is still the most powerful country in the world.

The tea party was born the day after the Republican, John McCain, lost the 2008 presidential election. Having held onto power for eight years, the party was disheartened. An opening was for the taking. Unsurprisingly, the tea party disciples are recruited from the white middle class and are over 40 for the most part. The most recent studies demonstrate how the anti-immigration element of their vote turned out to be more important than initially thought. In reality, they do not accept the presence of a president in the White House, who is not a “true American” in their eyes.

A clear product of the Republican Party’s defeat in 2008, the tea party’s ultraconservatives are also largely responsible for Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s loss in the 2012 presidential election. They drove him to make hardline speeches toward the end of the campaign. Romney had also definitely alienated centrist, independent voters and those from the Hispanic community, who were already naturally inclined to vote Democratic, to say nothing of the black vote.

“My prejudices, before my country. My party, before America!”

In keeping with this logic, the Republican Party finds itself on the precipice again. Of course, fed by a survival instinct and facing the certainty of President Obama in a position of strength, the Republican Party has seen itself cornered into a tactical retreat over the past few days. The unpopularity of its actions has become too big, its progressive isolation, too visible in the heart of the nation.

A short-term compromise was passed with a six-week, unconditional raising of the debt ceiling. The infamous specter of default gives way to moderation, given the boost in the world’s markets, and the worst is over. This is not how the top world power should be managed. Nevertheless, the psychodrama that appears to play out every two years in America is full of lessons that go beyond America itself. Everyone finds what he or she is looking for; authoritarian regimes will see their doubts confirmed on the virtues of a democratic system.

But this temporary victory of the “vetocracy,” using a formula by Francis Fukuyama, translates into the derivative and obstruction of the system, not its essence. Moreover, all those in Europe and France, who are always ready to compromise with populist parties, owe it to themselves to learn a lesson and take a warning from the “melodrama” in America. You do not negotiate innocently with forces that have no sense of the common good or compromise, who are overly certain of the righteousness of their cause, or so completely dominated by their hate, who stand ready to go to extremes in the name of their ideological vision of the world. Even if a lasting compromise is reached soon, the crisis has already created two victims: America and the Republican Party.