2024 is an unusual presidential election year. It did not have the usual excitement of many new and young political figures announcing and persisting in pursuing the presidential election. The two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, were quickly dominated by the present president, Joe R. Biden, Jr. (November 20, 1942), and the former president, Donald John Trump (June 14, 1946), who had a narrow contest in the 2020 presidential election. Despite their advanced ages, they both wanted a rematch and claimed they were destined to win. Less than 4 months to the election day, a horrible assassination attempt on Trump's life occurred just the week before he was formally nominated by the GOP convention (RNC). Subsequently, Biden was pressured to quit his reelection campaign and focus on his remaining term, weeks before the DNC convention. These are mega news, but this column will focus on a more important MAGA issue.
As a citizen who voted for Trump decidedly in 2016 and hesitantly in 2020, I am at a loss in 2024. I liked Trump's MAGA slogan, as an American who wouldn't want to make America great again? On the literal definition of MAGA, both Democrats and Republicans should accept it. Then why does the U.S. presidential election divide America deeper and deeper from 2016 to 2024? We had an unprecedented 'patriotic' protest storming into our Capitol building on Jan. 6th, 2021, influenced by MAGA (make America great again}; prosecution is still going on. Now we witnessed an assassination attempt on Trump's life while he was campaigning in Pennsylvania on July 13 delivering a MAGA message. This is absurd and horrible for American democracy. Don't we want America to be great again?! We need to think about what has gone wrong.
Of course, political scientists and commentators have hundreds of essays on how American democracy has become. I am not a political scientist, but I devoted twenty years to watching and tracking American politics. I have written ten books on American foreign affairs and US-China relations not to get on the best-seller list but to find understanding for myself. I have come to a simple conclusion, that is, the U.S. has become the greatest nation on earth because it has won numerous wars (undefeated!). This historical fact has driven the U.S. national security strategists to develop policies to maintain US supremacy; that is to keep America Great. Hence, when the U.S. has domestic problems and sees a weakening of its global influence, the slogan MAGA appeals to people. Trump shouts it and wants another chance to do it and Biden does it and wants to keep the course. But the problem is the slogan is right, but the approach is wrong. The U.S. national security strategists are used to keep America great by targeting enemies and winning wars. This has become a US national security legacy leading to US military supremacy (which comes with it a powerful military-industrial complex) and aggressive US foreign policies (seeking enemies and wars).
But the American people are peace-loving and patriotic. Do American citizens simply interpret patriotism as beating enemies and winning wars? I do not believe so, at least, not most Americans. So, we must ask why MAGA must have wars or enemies. Or why can't Americans MAGA without a war or an enemy? The two party's presidential candidates have different rankings of their enemies, but Trump and Biden both hinge MAGA on enemies. Today, we have a worse situation, that is. we have picked more than one enemy (Russia, China, Iran …) and dealt with more than one war at the same time. Just review the history, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. was the only superpower in the world, why couldn't we guide Russia to recover its economy and help China to lift its poverty to maintain US supremacy, instead of, targeting them as enemies? Did the U.S. national security strategists have the crystal ball that the latter outcome is always a better one for the U.S.? It is very doubtful.
The U.S. did not have to refuse China to join the space club to lead space exploration, but it targeted China as an enemy (from 'national security' concerns) and sanctioned any research interaction with China; the outcome now is that China is shattering the US leadership in space research. Accepting China into the space club earlier almost assured that the U.S. would maintain its leadership without an enemy (Russia and the EU were in the space club, and they did not threaten the U.S. leadership). The same question applies to the semiconductor industry, the U.S. can maintain its technology leadership by having China as a commercial market (even as a partner) for US advanced products rather than targeting China as an enemy, forcing China to compete and thus losing profits for our advanced technologies. (Imagining China would use our advanced chips for military use; didn't we know how to plant a backdoor key to disable the chips, as we suspect others do?) All these led me to ask the fundamental question to myself and all Americans: Can Americans MAGA (or compete) without having enemies or wars? Did our national security thinkers believe that we cannot compete as a great nation and that we must have an enemy or a war to stimulate Americans to compete? My answer to the subject question is that Americans can MAGA without Enemies or Wars! The stimulation coming from wars has too high a price tag and too late for America. We have already experienced enough with previous wars winning or not.
As the Democrats are figuring out who to replace Biden as the presidential candidate in the coming days, we citizens must review our national security-driven policies. To MAGA with enemies and wars is not only principally wrong but also dangerous for Americans and the world, since the military advances (and competition) are raising the war stakes too high to be affordable and the price to pay is the demise of all mankind. Americans do not need enemies and wars to stimulate MAGA, we need leaders who can think wisely and make intelligent policies to make America great again!
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