A Betrayal of American Ideals
Three speeches stand out for me today. Each shaped our role in the world. The third exposed our betrayal.
Iron Curtain In 1946 Winston Churchill warned that “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent…Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case.” It was the sobering articulation that Communist evil was subjugating the countries of Europe. He went on to say, “The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future.”
We chose to defend democracy against nationalism and build an international system supported by a rules-based order and international institutions. The system prevented a third world war and built peace and prosperity fostered by mutual assistance and trust. We were the symbol of freedom and hope, however imperfect the foundations.
Berlin Wall In 1987 President Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall that represented fear, police state, and the Cold War and issued a challenge to the Soviet leader, rooted in confidence and hope, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Democracy, with all its flaws, offered hope while the Soviets represented subjugation, oligarchical cruelty, political repression, incompetence, and corruption. Again, the U.S. was a symbol of hope for humankind.
Davos And now, the betrayal. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026 our president threatened, attempted to humiliate, lied to, and dishonored the very nations that had stood with us and sacrificed for democracy and hope. With Greenland verbiage threatening to undermine NATO and the bizarre pay to play “Board of Peace” full of dictators and autocrats, the U.S. had become a pariah while the murderous Putin smiled.
Pariah We now represent destabilization, nationalism, disregard of the international system, oligarchical corruption, tyrants over allies, violence, incompetence, arrogance, and intimidation. We have committed potential war crimes on the high seas and have begun to sanction the murder of our own people to benefit and enrich those in power. We have violated sovereignty at home and abroad. We have become the new threat to world order by undermining what had been established through the sacrifices of World War II and the Cold War. We are a threat to peace and hope.
We have accepted the weak position of the bully that “might makes right”. There is a social-Darwinist justification (the Nazis also accepted Spencer’s self-justifying “survival of the fittest” as well) that asserts there are no limits or constraints beyond our own greed. From the beginning of the Republic, we knew this was self-destructive and defeating nonsense. Until now.
Canadian Prime Minister Prime Minister Carney’s speech at Davos was as honest, concise, direct, and clear as Churchill and Reagan. It was not so much a warning as an acknowledgement of the catastrophic shift.
PM Carney stated, “Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition…more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination"...
"We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim"...
"We are faced with the challenge of our lifetime. To resist this self-destructive trend for short-term power and reassert our hard-won values. We can, as the PM stated, “build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.”
"Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnE2HTfDivQ
Choices If we accept a world with growing gaps between poverty and wealth, limited access to goods and services, and reliant of race-based or religious nationalism and territorial expansion to sustain it then we accept a future that may bring back a world where the Thirty Years’ War, World War I, and World War II were possible.
Social Contract Society functions by recognizing that we are in a social contract with one another. We cannot simply do whatever we want. We accept laws as reasonable. We obey traffic lights or push our shopping cart on the right side of the aisle. We navigate life together because we live together. The argument of the Trump administration that grabbing what you want because you can is fool’s gold.
Our Republic was established to interfere with the mentality of exploitation and tyranny that caused so much suffering. The Bill of Rights is meant to protect the weak and vulnerable not the powerful.
PM Carney challenges us with the story of Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, who wrote an essay called “The Power of the Powerless”. In the essay Havel points out that the Communist system sustained itself through participation of everyday people who were just trying to survive. They knew that what they were accepting was a lie but tried to live with it and pretend it was true. This is what also made the system fragile.
My Turn Because of greed, ignorance, and arrogance our leaders are attempting to undermine an imperfect world order that has stabilized the world after World War II. In an interconnected global world there is no reality in isolationism. An "America First" mantra - a cynical exploitation of peoples' fears - simply means circling the wagons and shooting in. When Canada has to point out to its oldest ally that they have entered a dangerous and destructive path we must pay attention. We get to chose what happens next. Will we continue to provide hope to the world or reject it so that a handful of the powerful get to plunder? Or do we live up to our responsibility and ideals? We can reclaim dignity and hope or we can continue down the path of self-destructive darkness. Which side of the Berlin Wall do we chose to stand on?
