战后美国史

Americans‟ Hatred to Politics and Their Anger and Anxiety in 1990sLi Baolong, Class 3, 08010022America has a long history of hostility to government and the tradition to oppose the present incumbent of the White House. The 1990s has seen the increasing disgruntled Americans and their hatred to politics (Norton et al.1002). Since China also has the counterparts, the “angry youth,” who are angry or even hated th e government as some Americans did in 1990s, studying the period of American history will provide some insights toward China‟s status quo. This paper attempts to examine the reasons why American public in 1990s, according to E.J. Dionne Jr., hated the politics and elaborate Americans‟ anger and anxiety at that time.According to Norton Jr., There are at least 3 main reasons why Americans hate politics: the effect of 1960s legacies, the false choice under the partisan confrontation and the political corruption problems.First of all, Americans in nineties were affected by the legacies of the 1960s, especially the New Left movement and its counterculture. Born in richer and more prosper society, the New Left was different from the old Left. It was called “New”because it rejected the sectarianism of American communist as well as the sectarianism of the anticommunist left. Too many ideas got lumped together under the headline “The New Left” in this movement, making people sometimes confused. While in Riggenbach‟s analysis, who is a libertarian writer, what mattered about the New Left was its antiauthoritarianism, its individualism, and its skepticism of the state (Dionne Jr.53).When reflected on the culture, it turned into the counterculture, mainly including the rise of rock …n‟ roll and the drug culture in the beat generation. Rock …n‟roll is self expression in essence. The rock concert was expressive for rockers‟ snarl and whine and drawl accompanied with amazing light and deafening volume. The shift from 50s‟ folk to 60s‟ rock also reflected a shift in values from sincerity to authenticity. Therefore, the famous rocker, Bob Dylan‟s works increasing violence and intensity were seen as kind of expression to become oneself by creating and whining. The culture of rock also played a decisive role in shaping the attitudes of young whites toward black people and civil rights (Dionne Jr. 40). The rock integrated black music into the lives of white people as it had never been before, thecultural integration combining white people and the blacks together eased the way toward civil rights and helped explain why so many middle-class white youth were drawn to the black struggle.The drug culture, in the meantime, had a clear and unmistakably libertarian demand: repeal drug laws and “leave us alone.” At that time, drugs became important to the counterculture in part because they were illegal. According to Dionne Jr., taking drugs was an adventure, a way for individuals to cast themselves as outlaws, a means of escaping the normalcy and boredom of everyday middle-class life. Drugs were simultaneously an expression of individualism. A gentle hedonism was one of the most powerful elements of the counterculture, and drugs were part of that hedonism. Since the Vietnam War bred a mistrust of the military, of the draft, of entangling foreign alliances, some student radicals in the 1960s opposed, even burned the draft and demanded the right to smoke marijuana to show their noncooperation and escape from the real world. All together, the New Left and its counterculture left many legacies, making Americans‟ sensibility towards government growing over the past 30 years.Second, liberals and conservatives, according to E.J. Dionne Jr., were framing issues as a series of “false choices,” making it impossible for politicians to solve problems, and alienating voters in the process. Conservatives and liberals argued that everything wrong with the country could be traced to the selfish eighties. Nobody was talking seriously about the nineties. If conservatives and liberals had trouble facing the future, it was because doing so will require both to face up to flaws in their world views (Dionne Jr. 323-324). As a result, American politics in 1990s mired into partisan confrontation, in which Politicians engaged in symbolic rather than substantive politics. While constituencies concerned about the economy, distribution of benefits, health care, efficacy of institutions, the politicians‟ discussion are distant from their concerns. What they mainly discussed actually was about morality, anti-communism, imperialism, human rights. For example, instead of compromising and negotiating solutions, there was partisanship and stalemate in George H. W. Bush‟s term, Republicans and Democrats seemed unable to work together or agree on anything. Therefore, most of the issues Americans really cared about had gone largely undiscussed. The future had gone undebated, while politics was still trapped in the past and the voters hated what they saw. Americans say that politics has nothing to dowith what really matters. If Americans had come to hate politics, it was because politics no longer seemed to offer them a way out of this trap.Third, corruption generated in politics and the election campaign made Americans distrust about the federal government and critiqued of government as an instrument of the ruling class and interest groups. Since the disillusionment of the 1960s, Americans have deepened their distrust and dissatisfaction of the politics. Every decade, there were scandals and other political credit crisis. From the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon‟s resignation from the presidency in the 1970s to the Iran-contra scandal in the 1980s and Bill Clinton‟s trial and investigation in the 1990s, they convinced many Americans that politics was inherently corrupt.Another root of the corruption problem could be traced to the influence of money that has been used to finance lobbying activities, to pay the increasing costs of campaign management and to subsidize the recipients of government favors. According to Berg, the role of money especially campaign contributions forms an integral and fundamental element of the corruption. For candidates, the campaign financing is an ongoing problem, therefore, candidates with no money faces almost impossible odds against victory. The citizen who can contribute more to campaigns is in a position to influence more votes than a counterpart who cannot afford to make such contributions. Therefore, the candidate is easily submitted to corporate and monetary interests and their political allies (Berg et al. 62-65). However, the limitation was merely existed on the amount and usage of the political contribution during 1990s. Huge volume of money flooded through the electoral process, making it an increasing technological pursuit. As a result, those skilled at fund-raising, polling, media relations and advertising has the upper hand, leaving the impression that the government has degraded to the instrument of the ruling class.As Dionne Jr. pointed it out that “Americans are thirst for change,” they are angry about the government doing nothing substantial progress. Meanwhile, they are anxious and uncertain about their future in the changing global environment.Americans were angry because they feel increasingly powerless in the electoral process and expressed their anger by showing indifference to the election campaign and sometimes, even creating terrorism. As fewer and fewer questions got settled through the electoral process, more and more problems were fought throughcourt decisions, congressional investigation and revelations in the media. Therefore, Americans‟ political affection became down. In the 1988 election, half of the voters staged away from the polls, producing the lowest turnout since 1924. Two thirds of the voters wanted a third choice, and a majority rated the campaign as “dull,”compared with 1984 election which was rated as “interesting” for the voters. Along with the increasing of political apathy, the terrorism arose. In 1995, there was a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, children included. This was the worst act of the terrorism in United States history. In 1996, the Militia event occurred, in which federal agents arrested twelve members of a paramilitary group for plotting to blow up government buildings. For the first time, American people found themselves living in the sense of horror generated from the homegrown terrorism, which was exactly showing the voters‟ hatred to the federal government.Americans‟ anxiety is the unknown sense about their future, especially whether they can maintain their living standard under constrained economic conditions. Americans in the 1990s faced economic uncertainties. First, Federal debt kept growing. When George Bush left office in 1993, he left 4.4 trillion federal debt, leaving not much money available to finance such programs as healthcare, technologies, welfare for children and the poor(Norton et al.,1002). Second, wage stagnation and job insecurity caused by downsizing in Clinton‟ term made the Americans, especially the massive middle class, feel unsafe about their economic condition. Third, the unfavorable comparisons with other societies, such as the rising Western Europe and Japan, made Americans anxious about their economic competence (Baker, 38). America‟s economy was compared unfavorably with the Japanese “economic miracle.” The Japanese GDP per capita in 1987 surpassed America, becoming the almost wealthiest countries at that time. As a result, much of the American market share was taken by Japan, Germany and other new immerging countries.In 1990s, America was seen as the only super power in the world after the collapse of Soviet Union, but the government was seen corrupt and politically unpopular by the American people. By examining reasons generating the hatred, the anger and the anxiety, the research shows some light on how to sooth the public‟s anger and anxiety and make a better world through reform and change.Works CitedBaker, Wayne. America’s Crisis of Value. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005: 38.Berg, Larry, Harlan Hahn, and John R. Schmidhasuser. Corruption in the American Political System. New Jersey: General Learning Press, 1976: 62-65.Dionne, Jr., E.J. Why Americans Hate Politics. New York: Touchstone, 1991: 40, 53, 323-324.Norton, Mary Beth, David M. Katzman, Paul D. Escott, Howard P. Chudacoff, Thomas G. Palerson, William M. Tuttle, Jr. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. 5th Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1996:1002.。