Donald Trump's election to the presidency in 2024 was just another political and ideological pendulum swing that proved once again that Americans, despite their wealth of resources and freedoms, are a perennially dissatisfied people who seem to enjoy fighting with each other more than finding common ground on which to build their future.
That is a very difficult statement for an American who loves his country to make, but make it I must.
Many years of observing my fellow man have helped me better understand who we are as a nation, but there is still one question that nags at me. It is: "Why can we not bury the hatchet and agree to pursue a course of politics that establishes once and for all what we stand for as a nation and that lays out a path towards achieving shared goals based on a shared vision?
I cannot help but compare the U.S. to some European countries, namely the one I am currently living in, that have actually done that. I write this on June 5th, Denmark's Constitution Day, which celebrates that country's basic law that governs their 5.6 million people. The "grundlov" as it's called also represents the end of the Danes' absolute monarchy which did not end in bloodshed or recrimination, but in an alliance between Denmark's sovereigns and its people.
Democracy prevailed.
It took another 80 years before the country embraced a set of social reforms that gave the citizens what they had bargained for when they ratified their constitution. Culture caught up with the law and helped form the social compact that the people had demanded. The social dye was cast and Denmark moved forward with a set of values, mores and actual policies that owed their existence to collaboration and compromise – two things sorely missing in American politics and culture.
Some of my countrymen would bristle to hear me say that, but those that have thought deep thoughts about our path towards the future would probably nod in silence. Our three last presidents: Obama, Biden and Trump are the embodiment of America's political and cultural schizophrenia.
Obama's "yes we can" turned into "no we couldn't" and so Trump came to power to undo what Obama had done.
After four tumultuous years, he was fired by an electorate that couldn't and wouldn't compromise with the opposition and wanted their country back. Four years passed with no attempts to heal America's wounds and a seriously senile chief executive was turned out to pasture.
Trump returned to clean up the mess that Biden left. There was just one problem, however, and that was a whopper. Half the country hated Trump and seriously mistrusted all of his supporters who happened to be their neighbors, their co-workers, their friends and even their families. Their cultural new deal that was based on identity politics and not rooted in common sense and human nature was about to be cast aside and replaced by values they opposed like a meritocracy.
That meritocracy has yet to flower and the economy has not shown that it can withstand the body blows inflicted by the president with his tariff war and an insistence on passing a "big beautiful bill" that will add significantly to the country's debt for decades to come, not to mention an extension of his previous tax cuts that are not targeted at the country's neediest taxpayers.
Granted, Trump has only been in office for five months, but to some, it seems like a lifetime especially when one considers all the executive orders he has signed and all the work that has been done to "streamline" (some would say destroy) the federal government's bureaucracy.
Criticism has never deterred Trump from following through on his ideas, beliefs and proposals. We have watched this happen over the span of a half-century of real estate dealings. It is one thing to have self-confidence and Trump certainly has that in spades, but it is another to possess self-awareness and selflessness, earned from personal experience. These two attributes are essential when it comes to leading an entire nation.
And they are indeed essential if a leader's followers will continue to follow him when there is no fulfillment of promises made.
The political clock is ticking fast – just as fast as Trump is moving ahead with his plans to make America great again.
The real question is: "What is the definition of great"?
Is it a society that has empathy as well as a sound economy; one that values human rights and reveres equality for all of its people? Is it one that accepts the necessity of protecting the collective good as well as the individual good? Is it about believing in the possibility that the other side has some good ideas worth listening to and then opening a dialogue with them?
America's dream is steadily shifting away from the dream many Americans dreamt about the 1950s to one that seems oddly out of place to those raising families during that time and in the couple decades that followed.
Americans have become jaded, cynical, and distrustful since the 1970s. Their cultural touchstones and milestone markers have disappeared and been replaced with celebrity and technology worship instead of deity worship. America's races and ethnic groups are confused and some are even moving away from integration into the broader society and embracing separation as well as monolithic politics under a "diversity" banner. Unfortunately, the current administration is doing little to acknowledge the cultural tectonic shift taking place.
President Obama promised to bring Americans together. So did President Biden. President Trump was smart enough not to promise that, realizing that that ship had already sailed. He knew that Americans wanted other things like safety and security and more money in their pockets and were willing to put up with the opposition as long as it didn't have the power to topple the Trump status quo.
In that sense, Americans are painfully pragmatic when it comes to short-term thinking. They realize that they have a powerful country, one rich in resources and one that can "make things happen."
Sadly, they are less concerned about how the country will actually look in another fifty years or whether they will be fighting each other in the streets or in the courts or at the ballot boxes instead of breaking bread together.
To many, compromise and consensus are just words that are spoken when one needs to appear trustworthy and compassionate. Regrettably, they are not the words that drive America's economy, its politics or its international relations.
I may be naive, but I still have hope that my country can come together and deal with its complexity, its diversity and its disagreements and decide on a path towards true greatness. After all, stranger things have happened throughout history and that should give us all hope and allow us to keep dreaming even when we are awake.
Stephen Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat specializing in international trade who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven on American politics, and has written over 1,500 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He now lives in Denmark and is a frequent political commentator on Danish media. He can be reached at: stephenhelgesen@gmail.com
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