The Chinese are Coming

By John Grace, Contributing Columnist, Wave Publications

“From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land,” President Donald Trump said during his inaugural address. “From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.”

The phrase alone has a long and troubling back story.

History suggests the phrase was a Republican campaign slogan in the 1880s, “But it didn’t become a national catchphrase until President Woodrow Wilson used it in 1915,” wrote Sarah Churchill, professor of American literature and humanities at the University of London in 2018.

Churchill explained that Wilson used the phrase then as part of his efforts to keep America out of World War I. As he tap danced to placate isolationist, he himself was an internationalist. In the name of leadership, Wilson felt it was important to maintain neutrality.

Churchill added: “But then the phrase gets taken up in the name of isolationism almost instantly, and it is quickly connected with other ideas that were also on the rise at the time, especially the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It became linked to anti-immigration movements and sympathizers of fascism, and was popularized by Charles Lindbergh, the famous American pilot who led the ‘America First Committee’ — a group of some 800,000 Americans who wanted to keep us out of World War II.”

What began as an antiwar slogan to remain distant from the world became an unequivocal fascist and xenophobic slogan.

In 2021, these United States of America has become so inward-looking it has lost sight of the world. Believe it or don’t, understand it or not, we are all part of the same planet where we drink the same water, breathe the same air, and just a moment ago, flew the same airplanes. No country can act on its conscience when it is unconscious of the facts.

As the U.S. has preoccupied itself in so many ways, we have not kept our eyes on the ball. In the late 1980s, we were convinced the Japanese would usurp the U.S. as No. 1 in gross domestic product. That did not happen, in my opinion, thanks to two advantages the U.S. enjoyed.

First, we were the only country in the world where an explosion of new births took place between 1946 and 1964 when baby boomers showed up 76 million strong. Second, unlike Japan, we welcomed immigrants during the same period.

To have a strong economy you need a significant number of people.

Now we see that, “China will leapfrog the U.S. to become the world’s largest economy by 2028,” according to economic think tank, the British Centre for Economics and Business Research. As we have been so busy studying our navels, the report suggested that “the economic fallout of the pandemic means China will surpass the U.S. five years earlier than previously estimated.”

The Centre for Economics and Business Research also wrote, “The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding economic fallout have certainly tipped this rivalry in China’s favor.”

With the U.S. embroiled in arguing over the political statement of wearing a mask, thanks to tough measures, and abetted by its authoritarian system, China appears to have stopped the pandemic in its tracks. At the same time the U.S. has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 as the number of cases and deaths continue to multiply.

When your favorite team becomes No. 1 in the league, that team immediately gets a target posted on its back. Every other team knows exactly who must be toppled.

The U.S. has about 4% of the world’s population, but 25% of coronavirus cases, according to CNN. To be No. 1 in the world with the most pandemic cases and deaths is certainly not my idea of a job well done.

The U.S. did a great job of developing the vaccine and a terrible job at distributing what we need today. Dr. Anthony Fauci declared, “The calvary is coming.” What good is a cavalry with no ammunition?

It appears to this observer that the U.S. should be in the business of inoculating 3 million people a day to be successful in keeping Americans alive. By my count, at the 2020 rate of vaccinations, it might take America 8 to 10 years to inoculate 330 million people.

Here’s what we should do to survive:

Add a fourth W to Wash, Watch, and Wear with Wait to join large groups.

Here’s what we should do to thrive: China just finished its economic development targets for the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

That’s right, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has undertaken this monumental task 14 times. What’s your plan for you and your family? Make no mistake about it, the Chinese are coming. Ahead of schedule.