Tom Friedman on Rudy Giuliani and the loss of standing of America.
One of the main things that we have harped about since the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been the loss of standing of this country. For instance, I wrote yesterday about how we have lost the standing to demand change in Burma. Ever since the tragic 9/11 attacks, this country has done nothing but export fear around the world, and Rudy Giuliani would be the president who would perpetuate that meme and contribute to the negative branding of this country. Friedman quotes the Onion as follows:
“At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11. ‘My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise,’ said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. ‘As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all.’ If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.”
Friedman continues by noting that the US is losing travellers to this country even as places like Europe are gaining them. Just in 2004-5, the number of business arrivals in the US dropped by 10% while Europe went up by 8%. The reason cited by the Discover America Partnership Study was the climate of fear that the Bush administration is exporting. For a president who claimed to be able to run the government like a business, he has done everything he could to scare businesses away.
And this may be anecdotal, but Friedman says that there is a ton of difference between service at places like Zurich and LaGuardia and cellphone service in Beijing and Bethesda. It is not just the Minnesota Bridge Collapse. Bush's obsession with Iraq has led to us falling farther and farther behind in keeping up with our infrastructure needs.
What these two things have in common is branding -- the neglect of our infrastructure and the climate of fear that the Bush administration has created has led to negative branding of this country as a whole and has scared millions of people away from visiting us. It has gotten to the point where continuing the occupation of Iraq is simply not worth it anymore, given the loss of standing and the loss of tourism to this country.
And we are losing standing in other ways, as noted by Friedman. For instance, China is unveiling cars that will meet the EU standards for emissions -- we used to set the standard. And thanks to our insane restrictive policies on immigration, Microsoft is opening businesses out of this country in Canada, where they can better attract the workers they need to keep their business profitable. Our nativism and our scaremongering is driving away business from this country and making them set up shop elsewhere around the world.
But for all that, our standing has not been fatally compromised. For instance, Friedman himself wrote about how the Chinese were still looking to us to set emissions standards and reduce the threat of global warming. And the palpable disappointment that people felt with the Bush administration showed how people are still looking to us for the answers this late in the game. But that time is running out.
All this shows more than ever why we need a candidate like John Edwards. By his refusal to accept that we were fighting a war on terrorism, he showed that he has moved beyond the jingoistic exploitation of 9/11 by the Republicans for partisan political purposes. With an Edwards presidency, we would once again have a president who set an example for the rest of the world to follow, and we would once again have a president that the world looked at to find the answers.
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