The Best America Can Do?
One film that contributed greatly to my political worldview as a young man was the documentary masterpiece on the 2003 invasion of Iraq No End In Sight (2007), by Charles Ferguson. His ability to lay out a devastatingly persuasive narrative on important subjects is second to none, and shines through all his films. (If you haven’t seen his 2011 film on the financial crisis Inside Job, stop reading and watch it now… Go ahead, I’ll wait.) Like a lawyer in closing arguments, Ferguson knows to end on a powerful moment, and in No End In Sight, it’s a comment from Seth Moulton — then an Iraq war veteran, now a Democratic House rep for Massachusetts. Just before the credits roll, Moulton tells the audience: “I mean, are you telling me that’s the best America can do? You know… Don’t tell me that, don’t tell the marines who fought for a month in Najaf that. Don’t tell the marines who are still fighting every day in Fallujah that that’s the best America can do. That makes me angry.”
I’m not blind to the broader context: the Iraq war was a nightmare from its inception. We shouldn’t have gone in the first place, and it was a product of lies from our leaders that amount to high treason. Over a million Iraqis died from our invasion, millions more were displaced, and the chaos we started rippled beyond their borders and destabilized the region. Ferguson’s argument on Iraq doesn’t highlight the endeavor’s overall wrongness, but instead reveals how much better we could have done despite it. We could have avoided disbanding the Iraqi army, which turned thousands upon thousands of newly unemployed trained killers against us. We could have enforced order in a police-like fashion after toppling Saddam in Baghdad, stopping the rampant looting and thereby ingratiating ourselves with Iraqis. We could have foregone bloated and unreliable American military contractors and used local resources, contributing to the local economy and building vital rapport (as Seth Moulton had indeed done and described in the film). I’m not trying to forgive anything, or minimize the gravity of our actions in Iraq (which aren’t even really over yet), but there was a path not taken that would have resulted in decidedly less misery for Iraqis, and less shame for us.
With that caveat out of the way, I want to return to Moulton’s challenge about “the best America can do,” because it increasingly comes to mind when I think about the state of our country now. There’s a seriousness, a maturity and sense of obligation in his words and tone. I can’t help but contrast his statement with President Biden’s repeated exaltations of America. “We have never, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we have acted together,” he declared with Churchill-esque insistence at his inauguration. “Everybody has been so down the last number of years about what America — What can we do? […] We can do anything!” He preached to an audience at a FEMA vaccination facility in February. Perhaps, as we continue to deal with COVID and its knock-on effects, Biden’s overt zeal is reassuring to some. But now, with a few months under his belt and ample opportunity to “do anything,” it must be said that Biden seems to be long on talk and short on action.
Last week, the Biden administration revealed their budget proposal, giving the American public a clear look at where their priorities lie, and whether they line up with his campaign promises. There are many unflattering discrepancies. On the healthcare front: the public option, lowering the age for Medicare eligibility, and negotiating for lower drug prices are all out, despite assurances from candidate Biden. On the economic front, they’ve axed student loan debt relief and the estate tax which, again, were part of Biden’s platform as a candidate last year. Beyond this most recent spate of let-downs, there’s also the lingering bitterness over the smaller-than-promised stimulus checks and inactivity on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The about-face from Biden on these last two policies famously left canvassers in Georgia, who promoted them to elect senators Ossoff and Warnock, feeling like they lied to constituents’ faces.
Of course, with every goal left unpursued comes an explanation from the White House as to why that’s the case. The American public was told that the parliamentarian killed the minimum wage hike; that Republicans wouldn’t allow the big spending needed for the public option; that bipartisanship is an important priority. There’s already a lot to be skeptical about from these explanations, but beyond that, Biden’s approval ratings are impressively high, giving him an opportunity to whip votes for his policies from intransigent fence-sitters like Senators Manchin and Sinema. What is stopping Biden (or Vice President Harris) from going to their states and campaigning against them as enemies of his popular platform? Or conversely, to offer them a ringing endorsement in exchange for their support? This is basic carrots-and-sticks politics.
If Congress is really the issue, progressive journalists with serious commitments to the policies that Biden claims to support have repeatedly pointed out the myriad ways that he could enact them without congressional support. Chief among them is veteran political reporter David Dayen of The American Prospect, who laid out in detail a potential “Day 1 Agenda” for the President, consisting of substantive actions he could take without Congress on these and other issues (executive orders, for example). So far, Biden has demurred on nearly all of it.
There are immediate costs to all of this. Right now, Democrats control both houses of Congress by the skin of their teeth, and the Biden administration’s sluggishness is not giving the American electorate a good reason to keep the Democratic party in charge past next year’s elections. Beyond these strategic concerns, I come back to Seth Moulton’s comments from over a decade ago that have started living rent-free in my head. Are the encroaching gig economy and starvation wages the best America can do? Is our notoriously expensive and substandard healthcare system the best America can do? Is leaving a generation of young people burdened with a trillion dollars in debt while protecting billionaires’ fortunes the best America can do? Don’t tell me that. That makes me angry.
