Those who love the United States, see it as a munificent force of good in the world, and understand that while it is not perfect, it at least aspires to be better were saddened by Thursday night’s presidential debate.
The world needs a beacon, an example to emulate, and, as Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, “a shining city on the hill.”
For generations, America was that “city.” However, after watching Thursday’s debate, one wondered whether that luster is beginning to fade.
It’s hard to imagine any democracy looking at Thursday night’s spectacle and thinking, “This is the model we should follow.” Many people in America and abroad wonder why a tremendously talented nation of 300 million cannot produce more inspiring leaders. This display hardly represents the best of American democracy or something worth aspiring to.
Put aside the “senior-moment” issues that question US President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities and forget the untruths shamelessly spouted by former president Donald Trump. The childish tone and tenor of the debate did no honor to America. We are a far cry from the famed Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas debates of 1858 or the Barack Obama-John McCain ones of 2008.
As America celebrates its 248th birthday today, it needs to introspect and consider where it is going and what it can do to get its pendulum swinging back to the middle and away from the extremes.
Given America’s toxic polarization, corrosive discourse, and obsession with political correctness, gender, and race, the US is increasingly looking to others – as if it is losing its moorings.
Israel still relies on the US
In a speech he gave on Friday at a North Carolina rally after his dismal debate appearance, Biden said that he may not speak as smoothly as he once did nor walk as steadily as he could, but that he knew right from wrong. That was always America’s strength – a good moral compass; knowing right from wrong. Yet, that compass seems less clear these days.
We write these words without joy because we feel that the US still plays an essential, critical role.
The Middle East is not the only region where vacuums often appear. When they do, it is clear that the US is the most desirable actor to fill such voids. It is a good actor on the world stage, needed now as much as ever to push back against the various bad ones, namely Iran, Russia, and China, who are just looking for US weakness so that they can pounce and spread their malign influence.
A world wherein the US either reverts inward to deal with its problems or feels, because of historical guilt, that it has no right to leave a heavy footprint around the globe is more dangerous. The globe needs a strong, self-assured America with solid leadership that understands that it has a critical role on the world stage and is willing to play it. The world needs America to lead.
Then again, in particular, the Middle East and Israel need a strong America. The US policy of slowly withdrawing from the Middle East began under Obama. It has not done anyone any good. The growing absence of the US’s presence in Iraq and Syria over the last two decades was one of the reasons that Iran and Russia were able to increase their influence in those countries and the region.
One of the uncomfortable truths that many Israelis woke up to on October 8 was the degree to which this country still relies on the US. The state counts on it for diplomatic cover at the UN and elsewhere; it depends on it to prevent its isolation in the international community; it relies heavily on it for arms. Just how heavily reliant Israel is on America for weaponry has become clear in recent weeks, when the arms did not flow as swiftly as they did at the start of the current war, leading to sharp criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US is Israel’s greatest ally, and the knowledge around the region that Israel has the US squarely in its corner has significant strategic ramifications. But that remains true only as long as the US stands strong, engaged, respected, and influential. On this July 4, we pray it remains so – for its good as well as our own.
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