Wade Davis: US social and political landscape points to decay | The Bottom Line

In an interview recorded days before United States President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Canadian-American social anthropologist Wade Davis argues that both Biden and his rival Donald Trump “ought to have stepped off the stage a long time ago”.

Davis tells host Steve Clemons that there is no question that the 20th century was the American century, but the question now is, “Who’s going to rule in the next century?”

With Americans on the left and right demonising each other, there is no room for a middle ground, and the country has become unrecognisable to many Americans, says Davis.

#unitedstates #uselection #elections2024 #donaldtrump #joebiden

[asceticblur]

It's sad I have to turn to Al Jezeera for honest news about my own country.

[Pid]

It’s cute that America thinks it’s a democracy…bless it

[tigerlily]

If this is what the American democracy does to the world we don't want it !!!

[jayyoo]

Another empire goes down. The natural process of the history.

[szvqorwnpstahskypfwmp]

Greed and arrogance are the root of all evil and destruction.

[duncankowable]

Guess Mr Wade Davis forgot about American Jim Crow laws, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps in the last century.

[fishpond]

neither a nebulous "social contract" nor the state of economy at the time gave workers weekends. Unions gave us weekends. America is not and has never been benevolent to it's underclass, just varying shades of cruel, some worse that others.

[brucemacmillan]

The fact that Trump is even competitive in 2024 says a lot about America. None of it good.

[markpappas]

That's not America, that's extended colonization.

[simonerender]

I find it so incredibly frustrating when people cast the modern political situation in America as this battle between extremist right and extremist left-wing ideologies. Are there extremist leftists? Absolutely. But they are not anywhere near power. The left of the Democratic party wants to move to a European style social democracy that supports its citizens in the form of a decent wage, universal healthcare, school food programs. And while those policies poll consistently highly in the US, the progressive wing gets shut down and marginalized whenever they speak up in the party, and people lose their minds now that there is a truly progressive block forming, just over their rhetoric. Meanwhile the centrist mainstream of the Democratic party largely shares their economic ideology with the Republicans, that of corporate patronage and the state essentially abandoning its responsibilities to its citizens. So instead these two forces battle it out over identity politics and cultural issues that are ultimately a distraction. They distract us by demonizing marginalized groups - immigrants, people of colour, lgbtq folks, etc from the Republican side, rural white people from the centrist Democrats. Meanwhile the real struggle is between the ultra wealthy who control all the levers of power, and the rest of us who are at each other's throats due to the propaganda the wealthy pay for.

[chocola]

They are not just diveded, the US is intensely hated like never before.

[susynne]

2:30 The claim about developing a new vaccine "in four months" needs clarification. Scientists had been working on RNA vaccines for about a decade before COVID.

[Heymansupp]

Will America loose its world dominance or will it destroy us all tol keep it

[donmc]

For a more long term perspective of the future challenges facing the US, it is instructive to read Paul Kenedy s 1988 book: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers- Economic change and Military Conflict 1500 to 2000. All great powers start with an economic advantage which is increasingly used for military purposes to protect it. Over time its increased military costs and deficits depletes it economy reducing its econonomic power.

[Hopeful_Libertarian]

The U.S. has fallen to its lowest free press ranking & score ever under POTUS Biden. For 2024 the rank fell to 55/180 worldwide & the score to 66.59/100, which is Level 3/5, Problematic.

[Pid]

It’s not a question…just a slow realisation.

[mn-ltkq]

The answer: now natanyahu is ruling but as soon as he looses the war ...the ones who beat him will rule

[mediastudiesnetwork]

Strange they’re still talking about Biden as the candidate

[scar]

The irony of him calling Russia is being a part of unholy alliance….

Have you watched the olympics mate? Pretty sure you are the unholy side.

[gregorysteele]

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL! P.H. MARCH 1799