The weaknesses of the United States in the face of its triple crisis

"5% of the world's population lives in the United States, where 25% of the world's prisoners are located (...) History is not made up of facts that happen by accident. We are a product of the history made by our ancestors, that is in the case of being white. In the case of being black, we are the product of a history that our ancestors probably did not choose". This is how the 13th Amendment begins, a documentary in which experts, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans in the United States. The death of George Floyd and subsequent events have exposed the weaknesses of the American giant. Tensions within the political elite have become a constant. Just a few days ago, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he did not share the idea of deploying the military to control the marches that have spread throughout the country in the wake of George Floyd's murder, a distancing that could play a key role in the campaign for the upcoming presidential election in November. 

"The fact that Trump has not reacted to these statements is a sign of weakness on the part of the presidency," said José María Peredo, professor of international politics and communication at the European University of Madrid on the Atalayar radio program broadcast every Monday on Capital Radio. "The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has been joined by a social crisis that has been interpreted by Trump in a polarized way," Peredo stressed. "Instead of interpreting it as a sign of free expression of society or a demand for rights, Trump has done it in a different way, encouraging attitudes of rejection on the part of some Republican leaders. This is very significant," he added. In this sense, Peredo has defended, as he did in an article entitled 'I can't breath', that "the demonstrators are not terrorists or anti-fascists". 

Atalayar's director, Javier Fernández Arribas, has insisted on the importance of leaving our European vision aside in order to analyse American policy. "We have to be careful because sometimes from Europe we run the risk and make the mistake of thinking that in the United States the person most suited to us will win, according to our perspective". However, the reality is very different and therefore this country must be analysed taking into account its customs and way of life. "The gap that has opened up within the Pentagon and the military high command is very worrying," he lamented on the Atalayar radio program broadcast last Monday.

Likewise, both Fernández Arribas and Peredo agreed on the importance of analyzing the phenomenon of polarization within American society. "There is a polarization in American society of a racism that is structural. A racism that is not of today and that, I believe, will remain for a long time. This type of outbreak occurs every so often and we must not stop fighting it or taking the appropriate measures to temper it or even to make it disappear," said the director of Atalayar. 

Similarly, geopolitical expert Santiago Mondéjar stated that "the changes that the United States is undergoing are very profound and affect many spheres of society". "The problem that Trump fundamentally faces is that what had been his great strength before, that is, being an outsider, on this occasion is playing against him, because he has not been able to read the emotional state of society properly". 

The question, according to the three experts, lies in the origin of American society. "The problem is part of the original sin of American society, based on the slavery origin of a large part of the population, of a civil war that is not cured, or of a series of laws that established discrimination on multiple factors, such as the 13th amendment," said Santiago Mondejar. "Between 1960 and 2010 the black prison population tripled in the United States, a figure that has even been used by companies. In the United States, a large number of prisons are privately run. There are a number of economic interests that make it difficult to bring about change in relation to racism, but for now the institutions are resisting," he added. 

Professor José María Peredo of the European University stressed that to understand these recent developments one must also stop and think about the evolution of the concept of segregation. "Segregation has been a constitutionally approved and developed policy for many decades. That segregation constitutionally recognized the rights of African-American citizens, but confined them to develop their rights in absolute equality in separate communities," he said.

The chaos that has characterized the American nation due to the protests and the coronavirus has led the New York legislators to approve this Monday a law that explicitly prohibits the police from holding citizens by the neck in their arrest techniques. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), in charge of monitoring the evolution of economic cycles in this country, reported Tuesday that the U.S. officially entered a recession during the month of February, after 128 months of growth. However, the unemployment rate fell for the first time in May from 14.7% to 13.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For his part, Mondéjar insisted on the importance of analysing this data "with caution and perspective". "If we analyse the profile of the jobs that have been recovered, they are related to the reopening of the country," he said. "I am sure that the United States will recover because of its ability to get out of this kind of crisis and will do so before we do. Even so, we must be aware of the complexity of this situation", he concluded.