America, the Tragic Spite of Long-Time Cheated People

Americans said no to the $700 billion plan and the reason is simple: they rebelled against a political and financial elite that for years betrayed the trustee relationship with the people. A great, treacherous, uneven betrayal. Elite managers took control of the main companies in the country and found its counterpart in a political class that was actively accomplice or hushed up by electoral funding and very effective, often lavish, lobby pressure. The lot completed with massive doses of spin, the manipulation of public opinion.

Too often during these years the White House took advantage of the good faith of the American people, exploiting the fear of 9/11, justifying the war in Iraq under the cloak of a nuclear catastrophe, underrating the impact of Hurricane Katrina and then overreacting to Hurricane Gustav. Bush administration, although formally liberal, gave billions of dollars to defense companies in the name of fight against terrorism and did nothing to avoid the debt bubble caused largely (but not only) by subprime mortgages and by an extraordinarily unscrupulous financial world.

American people needed a lot of years to understand, but once aware of the great fraud by the elite they reacted vehemently. Electors forced deputies (mostly Republicans but a strong Democratic minority as well) to reject the $700 billion bailout, and the reason is simple: they don’t trust the government anymore. They don’t trust President George W. Bush, and they don’t believe it when the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson suggests catastrophic events, seeing him as the ex-chairman of Goldman Sachs who tries to save his friends in Wall Street.

I don’t know how this crisis will resolve itself. Implications are really profound and Americans’ revolt could make things difficult all over the world, but the lesson is clear: credibility is an essential value of democracy. The techniques of spin allow the abuse of credibility, but in the long run they boomerang on those who use them. This counts not only for the United States, but also for right and left European governments. In a world in crisis, people ask the political class for authority, strength and at least a bit of sincerity. Who knows if Berlusconi and Veltroni are aware of it?