How Jimmy Carter used his power
U.S. power, as we've known it, is called into question
In 2019, former President Jimmy Carter took a phone call from President Donald Trump. This was Trump's first outreach to Mr. Carter. He was worried because he saw China "getting ahead" of the U.S. What Carter said in reply went something like this:
"You're worried that China is getting ahead of us, and I agree with you. But do you know why China is getting ahead of us? I normalized diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979. Since then, do you know how many times China has gone to war with anyone? Not once, even though we're constantly at war.
The United States is the most warlike nation in the history of the world because it wants to impose states that respond to our government and American values throughout the West, and to control companies that own energy resources in other countries. China, for its part, invests its resources in projects such as railways, infrastructure, intercontinental and transoceanic bullet trains, 6G technology, robotic intelligence, universities, hospitals, ports, buildings, and high-speed trains instead of using them for military spending."
"How many kilometers of high-speed trains do we have in this country?
We wasted $300 billion in military spending on subjugating countries that sought to escape our hegemony.
China hasn't wasted a penny on war, and that's why it surpasses us in almost every area. And if we had spent $300 billion to install infrastructure, robots, and public health in the United States, we would have high-speed transoceanic bullet trains." We would have bridges that don't collapse, free healthcare for Americans, thousands of Americans who wouldn't be infected with COVID-19 more than any other country in the world.
We would have roads that hold up properly. Our education system would be as good as South Korea's or Shanghai's."
According to Snopes, this call was not recorded and cannot be verified word for word, but many heard Carter recall the conversation to his Sunday School class. The question for us is not whether this statement is exactly verbatim. Our question is, if it were true and China WAS "ahead" of the U.S. in these crucial ways, would that be our biggest problem?
What would it look like if we defunded war?
As a nation, America is obsessed with dominance, as if not being the sole superpower was somehow an existential threat. No wonder we're flopping and flailing right now because, like it or not, American hegemony is definitely on the wane and may even be ending faster than we imagine.
America has handled its superpower status unwisely if we've come to a point where we're fighting for dominance for the sheer sake of dominance. America is known for its "power over" stance in relation to other nations. We've insisted that we were somehow special or set apart from everyone else — an attitude commonly known as American exceptionalism. There is a hidden cost to being sui generis that we virtually never talk about: when it's time to yield, we’re more likely to break than bend. If we only protect our pedestal, the fall from it will be a long way down.
We Americans need to get familiar and comfortable with a different sort of power: "power with" rather than "power over." Here are a few ways that might become evident:
The implications of such change are:
We learn to see ourselves as part of a larger system, versus through the narrow lens of American exceptionalism.
We won't waste time on zero-sum games in which I can only win if you lose. It's all or it's nothing.
We measure our strength by the quality of our partnerships and ability to solve complicated problems peacefully, rather than the number of countries we've managed to "beat" at one thing or another.
When I look ahead and picture these conditions, I feel hopeful and confident. When I think about how these compare with where we are today, I shudder and wind up with my head in my hands.
Donald Trump, the last of the old-school tyrants
I see how American exceptionalism, taken to its logical extreme, gave us Donald Trump. If we are extremely fortunate, if the universe grants us another shot at getting it right, Trump will serve as a clarion call rather than the death by fire of American ideals.
There are many useful ways of looking at Donald Trump. In this instance, I'm treating him as someone who is using all his might to halt human progress rather than relinquish personal power. He has his own personal reasons for whatever he does, but the end result is that he seeks to undo eighty years of international agreement, put women under the subjugation of men, and simply erase whomever is immigrant, LGBTQ+ or foolish enough to stand up to Trump. As a wannabe emperor and as a human being, Donald Trump is the last of a dying breed. By that, I mean that if he cannot dominate, control, and become a hegemon unto himself, he simply cannot function. "Power over" tends to be rigid and brittle, while "power with" is more agile and adaptive to changing conditions. Since the dominant narrative in our country involves a number of false binaries, many people do not view "power with" as equivalent in strength to "power over," but it is. In truth, different situations call for different expressions of power.
None of the types of power are inherently good or bad. "Power over" is needed when your child starts to run in front of traffic. Likewise, if you're the one at a crash site that has medical intervention skills, everyone will appreciate it if you take over and tell the others what you need them to do. "Power to" is what gives us our autonomy. It's about having options, resources, and skills adequate to the challenge. "Power with" leverages the fact that we are independent on one another and multiplies our individual strengths.
The secret to managing all your sources of power is humility, followed closely by authenticity. These are the same reasons it's almost impossible to go up to a Buddhist monk and scare the crap out of them. If you are simply standing on your ground and know what you do and do not know, where your power exists and where it ends, there's nothing to get rattled about.
My personal belief is that "power over" is more of a blunt instrument than "power to" or "power with." It's a sledgehammer compared to a scalpel. America is just beginning to learn that there are other advantageous ways to exist besides being a hegemon. Right now, our constitution and economy are not designed to support "power with." That's why all of this is easy enough to say, but tough to create.
Whether or not America will seize the opportunity our current crisis affords us remains to be seen. At this moment, it's like America is standing on a precipice between evolution and de-volution as a society. The question for you and I is: what can we contribute to keeping America going forward?
Right now, we are a part of a giant organism that is fighting Trumpism like our bodies fight infections. It's not just one system, it is several that are involved in this fight. The legal system is currently doing best at holding the lines of constitutionality and checking the Trump regime's power. At the same time, American universities are resisting Trump's moves to neutralize them. Even certain congresscritters are beginning to wield their resources in the service of democracy and ending Trumpism. Lastly and perhaps most critically there is us. We The People are doing what we can to rescue American ideals from the tar pit of Trumpism and evolve them to a point where they will be more sustainable as a reason to exist as a nation. It's not one of these groups, it's ALL of them working in harmony that make this a "power with" rather than a "power over" challenge.
What can I do?
You already know what I'm going to say, so why have a section on what you can personally do? In addition to all the tactics of resisting the Trump regime, you can learn how you wield power in your own life:
Notice when you switch between using power over, power to, and power with to accomplish your aims.
Notice when power — any power — scares you. Notice what you do in reaction.
Notice how you respond to being over-powered in some way.
Work on your capacity to deal with ambiguity.
Work on your capacity to adapt to change.
On the face of it, this sounds more like navel-gazing that fighting Trump, but I'll tell you the secret. It goes back to humility and authenticity. These two qualities are what help each one of us survive. They are the compass that tells us when to engage and when to disengage. They help us decide when to take the high road and when to get down in the dirt and fight. The more of us with well-developed humility and authenticity, the stronger we will be for whatever lies ahead.
I want to see you marching in the streets. I want you to write checks to candidates and organizations that have the scale and capacity to save democracy. Those are givens and are not news to us. What I'm talking about here is the deep work of embodying the best of what it means to be an American.
When Trump and Trumpism go down — and they will go down — we will be adept surfers in these tidal waves of change. Learning to wield power adroitly, humbly, and transparently is what will makes us superheroes for the future.
Song of the Day
“We Got A Dream” — Ocean
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Keep on keepin’ on,
Cindy