A new America

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‘Whether it will be a ‘better’ America for everyone is what I am half excited and scared to see.’

SIXTY-ONE years ago yesterday, something died in America when John F. Kennedy died in Dallas, Texas

He wasn’t the first president to be assassinated, but his death was felt and mourned around the world. That’s because, at the time of his death, Kennedy represented the promise of America – young, photo and telegenic, cultured, he was the inspiration for generations of young people not only in the United States but in many other parts of the world as well. Somehow, he made people feel that there was a bright future ahead (including a future in space exploration) and that America would lead the rest of the world in fighting for democracy, justice, and equality for all.

Somehow, his assassination unlocked a dark side in America. People began to doubt their government, their system, and themselves. American society became deeply divided – among racial lines as well as other socio-economic lines. The war in Vietnam started a debate about America’s values and how relevant they were to the rest of the world; it led to people questioning whether America indeed should have a leadership role in the “freedom-loving” alliance of nations, or whether it should simply care about its problems and ambitions.

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As America was beginning to question itself and find its way, the rest of the world was changing. A new economic reality was emerging with new alliances and new centers of power.

The America that Donald Trump will now preside over is new. Almost equally white and non-white, it has pockets of urban and suburban communities that think differently from wide swaths of rural America. Communities differ in the interpretation of the values on which America was founded in the 1780s. And even within cultural communities, there are deep divisions that didn’t exist before.

All these also affect how America under Trump sees the world. In a world so used to the exercise of American economic and military power in furtherance of American foreign policy, the changing America will mean a changing world order for which no one seems prepared.

Will all these be temporary? Trump, anyway, is no longer entitled to run again in 2028, and therefore his “era” could simply last only for the next four years. Unless, of course, he represents a shift in national consciousness that will outlive him and become the norm.

These changes have happened before. For me, a vivid example is how China under Mao was radically transformed by Deng Xiaoping’s leadership. The China of Xi Jin Ping is the product of that change and we have seen what impact that has had not only in East and Southeast Asia but in the rest of the world as well.

It’s a new America that is set to re-embrace Donald Trump.

Whether it will be a “better” America for everyone is what I am half excited and scared to see.

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