Juggernaut: “any terrible force, esp one that destroys or that demands complete self-sacrifice ” (dictionary.com)
Three years ago I came to the conclusion that it was irrational to believe that the USA was going to change for the better on expat issues. Roger Conklin had recounted that a congressman lost re-election on account of his support for expat issues, and that made me realize that the no one could turn the USA from its present course. It was a juggernaut, and it is best just to get out of the way. A few weeks ago I started using the term “juggernaut” to depict the USA. Then this evening, I looked up the derivation of the term, from an idolatrous practice in India (s.v., juggernaut):
a crude idol of Krishna worshipped at Puri and throughout Odisha (formerly Orissa) and Bengal. At an annual festival the idol is wheeled through the town on a gigantic chariot and devotees are supposed to have formerly thrown themselves under the wheels
When patriotism becomes idolatry it is nearly impossible to change the course of a nation. Criticism becomes disloyalty. My critiques are “America-bashing“. But it seems to me that true loyalty too often requires throwing oneself under the chariot. Many times has these United States required its citizens to do this very thing: the Civil War, Viet Nam War, and now FATCA–to name just a few examples.
Well, if you don’t like the juggernaut metaphor to describe the United States, today Zero Hedge has recently repeated an article by John Chuckman, America as Dangerous Flailing Beast, but even Chuckman cannot help but see the religious devotion in America’s collective sociopathy:
America simply cannot accept its mistakes or that it was ever wrong, for Americanism much resembles a fundamentalist religion whose members are incapable of recognizing or admitting they ever followed anything but the divine plan.
America has made a costly series of errors over the last half century, demonstrating to others that the America they may have been in awe of in, say, 1950, and may have considered almost godlike and incapable of mistakes, has now proved itself indisputably, in field after field, as often not even capable of governing itself. The irony of a people who are seen as often unable to govern themselves advising others how to govern themselves brings a distinct note of absurdity to American foreign policy.
America’s establishment, feeling its old easy superiority in the world beginning to slip away in a hundred different ways, seems determined to show everyone it still has what it takes, determined to make others feel its strength, determined to weaken others abroad who do not accept its natural superiority, determined to seize by brute force and dirty tricks advantages which no longer come to it by simply superior performance.
Rather than learn from its errors and adjust its delusional assumptions, America is determined to push and bend people all over the world to its will and acceptance of its leadership. But you cannot reclaim genuine leadership once you have been exposed enough times in your bad judgment, and it is clear you are on the decline, just as you cannot once others realize that they can do many things as well or better than you.
This imagery from the article is powerful and accurate:
Who survived a suicide bombing while being transported in an Elephant truck across Iraq in 2004.
Loved the part about America being unable to govern itself but wanting to push it`s rules on others. It seems completely unfathomable to them that others could even possibly not want the “American way of life”.
USA sure know’s how to turn it’s citizens into naive blindfolded patriots.
My american uncle who served the us gouvernment for many years abroad ounce told me “all you have to do is get out of your country to see it’s dirty laundry”.
They have been Hollywooding the whole world about this “American way of life”. What way of life ? Getting deeper and deeper in debt just to keep up with the Jones’s style of life ? Ridiculous.
Very insightful post. Where this comes from is a long story. It is definitely pushed from the top.
I found the Roger Conklin posting very interesting. It seemed strange to me that the voters of Arkansas were so riled up about expats, so I did some checking in the Nexis database of what journalists at the time said about Bill Alexander’s loss in the primary to Blanche Lambert.
Not a single article blames his support for expats in any form for his loss. It is understandable that members of Congress wouldn’t want to touch an issue that has become a third-rail for congressional careers, but that is not what Bill Alexander’s loss shows. Could it be that it was not Alexander? Alexander did champion Americans Abroad, winning the 1982 Ben Franklin award from the ACA for his activities, but that doesn’t seem to be what sunk him a full decade later.
All of the articles explaining Alexander’s 1992 loss mention that he was one of the worst culprits of the House Banking scandal, which involved members of the House being allowed to run overdrafts at the House Bank. Alexander wrote 487 checks for which he lacked sufficient funds. Americans are not normally allowed penalty-free overdrafts, so felt that this was unfair. The deficit was the big issue of the 1992 election and his opponent convinced voters with statements like “If he can’t balance his checkbook, how can he balance the checkbook of the nation.” (UPI 27 May 1992).
Alexander also had some other issues:
* Black voters were displeased with his membership at an all-white country club and lack of black staffers.
* The FEC announced fine of $5,850 against Alexander in the days before the 1992 primary for failing to disclose $85,000 in late receipts in the 1990 primary.
In general terms, 1992 was also not only anti-incumbent, but also the “Year of the Woman,” since women were disgruntled by the attitudes of male senators in the Clarence Thomas hearing. Neither of these trends helped Alexander, who had been in Congress 24 years and faced a female opponent.
In other words, Alexander’s support for Americans abroad did not lead to his electoral defeat. Bob McClory did leave after getting the ACA award, but that seems to have been a retirement due to unfavorable redistricting. Has any member of Congress ever been hurt by helping American Citizens abroad or are they just using this as an excuse not to do something?
Do we actually have any black expats here? Anybody who posts here is black? Because I am wondering of most black people vote democrat and like Obama? I have a distant cousin who is totally enamoured with Obama because she sees him as helping the poor.
I strongly disagree with many parts of that article, which practically ascribe various world events as the work of the United States. In Egypt, the US government offered nothing more than verbal support; in Libya, the international intervention came primarily from France and the United Kingdom; the civil war in Syria was not “artificially-induced” by the United States; in Ukraine, the US was not involved at all, it was European leaders who mediated the negotiations (as the article itself mentions later). Although the author clearly criticizes the “American civil religion”, he incongruously shows its traits by exaggerating the importance of the United States and consistently referring to it as America.
Nevertheless, I agree with the part that Petros highlighted above. Living in the US, I can say that the “American civil religion” is not as prevalent as some of you may think, but when it occurs, it’s very irritating.
Despite Roger Conklin’s report, it seems to me that other factors, such as Bill Alexander’s involvement in the US House banking scandal in 1992, contributed much more to his election defeat than his support of Americans abroad. But I’m starting to agree with Petros that things will not change. I read Michael Kirsch’s article more carefully, as well as his references directly, and the similarity between what happened 100 years ago and today is striking. The irrational tax treatment of Americans abroad, the pleas for change to Congress, its irritating indifference, even the renunciations, all of that already happened before. And the “solution” that came out of this was the FEIE, 10 years later. So I totally agree with all of you who decided to renounce. I would have probably done the same in your situation.
Still, I’m an eternal optimist, and there are indeed new aspects now, most importantly the theoretical support of the majority party. I’m not expecting much from the upcoming report from the Senate Finance Committee (postponed again to next week?), but who knows. A lot of things changed in the US last week, which were unthinkable not many years ago.
@Shadowraider and @Publius, many thanks for your detailed reactions to my post. I think that USA foreign policy today is incoherent, but on the finer details there is much room for discussion.
As for the re-election loss of Bill Alexander, I was depending on Roger Conklin’s analysis alone–and you both provide some interesting comment. What Roger said was that it was difficult for ACA to get the kind of support that Bill Alexander gave them after his failed re-election bid. Even if expat issues did not sink his re-election, Conklin found that nobody afterwards saw it as something that would help them among the electorate–but rather as an issue that could hurt them.
The optimists on expat issues like Shadow Raider and Rand Paul may win out–that is my hope. I am however not convinced that it is rational to believe they will, since the vector of forces regarding expats has become increasingly hostile since the Civil War. After 150 years, it seems irrational to expect that these forces would then change to a more favorable direction, while, at the same time, the US financial position becomes more tenuous and more Homelanders depend on government. The long and short of the matter is that politicians who blame expats can deflect attention from their profligate leadership. This is the essence of demagoguery.
@Polly, I am not sure why you are asking the question about black expats, but in any case, perhaps this post will help answer the question for you. It was a collaboration between me and Recalcitrant Expat who also renounced his citizenship.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/08/14/both-our-forefathers-were-slaves-when-is-a-comparison-correct-and-when-isnt-it/
A good example of my point is that some Democrats Abroad (DA) are lobbying their connexions in the government to get the same country exemption–so-called “safe harbor”. Apparently Treasury has told them that they CAN implement safe harbor as a regulatory change without consulting Congress. Despite this claim, nothing has happened on that front. In fact, Treasury continues to insist on the current FATCA regulations. So either DA is being played as fools OR, DA is putting up a good front for its membership of pretending to fight the good fight. Democrats Abroad are winning this as a propaganda war–as some of their supporters continue to maintain that Obama may be bad on expat issues, but overall he is a good president. I do not think such a position is rational. It is obviously not in my self interest to maintain support for a man who is trying to destroy me financially through the violation of my universal human rights.
@Shadow Raider @Petros
I had overlooked that article and the author gets the origins of these ideas completely wrong. There certainly is a religious element to American exceptionalism, in fact Americanism is sometimes called the American creed. These ideas arose long before actual U.S. superiority and doesn’t assume that the U.S. will necessarily fulfill its mission: failure is a risk unless everyone pulls together. What might be called American exemplarism builds on the 1630 Puritan notion of the “City Upon the Hill”: either the community will fulfill its god-given mission and become a shining example or god will make an example of it by punishing it. Think of LIncoln and his statement in the Gettysburg Address that “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth” or the tendency of Americans to get into a moral panic when the country faces difficulties. The sense of a national mission was a way of getting people to pull together in a very individualistic society and the 19th century backers of CBT were incredibly into it long before the U.S. became more powerful than Britain. Of course, once it became top dog, this mission really went to its head, but previous top dog countries have also considered themselves to be exemplary. There were things that used to make the U.S. exemplary (social mobility, liberal democracy), but other countries, particularly Canada, do these things better now. The U.S. has been exceptionally powerful for an exceptionally long time, but it’s hard to think of how else it is really unique.
“…a desperate attempt to shake the world to gain advantages it couldn’t secure through accepted means of governance and policy.” I couldn’t have described FATCA better myself.
@Shadow Raider: “A lot of things changed in the US last week, which were unthinkable not many years ago.” Yes, indeed. We have Confederate flags being taken down all over the South and the recognition that *all* Americans have the right to marry regardless of their choice of partners. Who would have thought the possibility of either of these things just days ago? Two sacred cows in one week! Dare we hope for a third? Dare we hope that CBT will finally make it to the ash heap of history in the not-too-distant future? I’m going to choose to dare because I have to.
America needs to watch for the growing elephant in the room – China.
Look what’s happening right in front of America’s nose –
– China building artificial islands in the South China Sea to expand its regional military presence
– Today the first meeting of the AIIB with 57 countries as members (not US or Japan)
– China has signed numerous currency swap deals including with Canada to internationalise the RMB
It’s a step by step process, but we’re witnessing the same process when GB handed the reins over to the US during early 20th century.
When oil is priced in $/RMB or only RMB the jig will be truly over for the US.
@Petros
Nothing sinister- I was just wondering if we had any black expats on our side? It was prompted by a “like” which my white second cousin gave the birthday of Obama`s daughter on Facebook today. She likes a lot of things that Obama does- she is a democrat. She is a Buddhist and very into letting earthly temptations go. Might be easy for her to say because she is very wealthy which means she never gets to the point of dire need. So I know she votes dem. ( I never talked to her about my situation.) That plus all the talk about candidates for 2016 elections and I was wondering who voted dem versus rep, and how many black people were affected by our dilemma? That combined with the dem versus rep thing.
@Petros
As a PS-
Funny how some topics are touchy ones. Same goes for gays. Where I live, homosexuality is a normal part of society and a friend of mine has been married to his lifelong boyfriend or about 3-4 years already. There are not many black people here, but I have a black friend who is so european. He speaks about 5 languages and just behaves and talks like everybody else. I never notice the colour of his skin. I had a gay son of somebody I know visiting and all he did was defend himself for days- like a broken record continuously trying to defend who he is. I told him that he is preaching to the choir here and to relax because nobody is going to give him a hard time for it. So I ask such questions from a place of neutrality.
@Don
Difference between the US & China…
China is doing things quietly… not really talking or crowing about all the good they are doing for the world… not debating if what they are doing is good or bad… US would have been all over saying… how US is great for the world… how the US is the best… yadda… yadda… or better yet… We are #1… I want to slap the crap out of those who say that…
@US_Foreign_Person – I agree. China is increasing its influence step by step without boasting.
What amazes is China’s involvement in Africa. If you google street view the capitol of Botswana, and go to the government buildings part of the city by the new courthouse, you see Chinese writing all over the barriers surrounding a huge building site. The Chinese is quietly building indebtedness through these infrastructure projects. The African Union needed a new headquarters, guess who came to the rescue? They also building a new railway. What’s the US doing? Enforcing the mandates of the World Bank and IMF. These countries barely can afford the repayments to WB and the IMF and are turning to the Chinese to get these infrastructure projects done. What is going to be more powerful reminder to these countries? Big loan repayments or every time they pass by that 50 story building with a sign reminding them who paid for it.
The US used to do these things around the world, but two credit card wars has stopped those acts of generosity. The US can’t afford and has to spend trillions to get its own infrastructure back to a suitable standard.
@Don, “The US used to do these things around the world, but two credit card wars has stopped those acts of generosity.”
You forgot, ” that two percent of the US population served in.”
They fought two credit card wars on someone elses dime with someone elses sons.
http://www.treasury.govI/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA-Archive.aspx
Interestingly enough after the massacre in Tunisia I wondered if they’ve signed a FATCA agreement. Tunisia has done nothing. In fact there’s a website listing non-FATCA banks in the country.
http://non-fatca-banks.com/tn.html
http://www.non-fatca-banks.com/
Someone has decided that non-FATCA banks should be publicised.
@Don
*Someone has decided that non-FATCA banks should be publicised*
Saves terrorist time to decide on which database to hit & in which countries…
Fatca = Good chance on having a database hacked or info stolen… Better yet… know where the americans live & what they have in a foreign countries to take or kill them off… Will be a very efficient way to collect victims…
@Shadow Raider @Petros
I am still a bit floored that Americans abroad weren’t considered worth standing up for because they couldn’t turn around the fortunes of a member of Congress who had the big trends of the election going against him.
It strikes me too that in this case the only way that Americans abroad registered in the district might have played things a bit differently at the time was to vote in the primary. Bill Alexander didn’t lose to the Republican, he lost in the Democratic primary and neither Democrats abroad nor Republicans abroad do much to get out the overseas primary vote, although this is the only thing that would give the overseas vote clout. Unless ‘Americans abroad’ start being extremely tactical, nailing incumbents for their hostile positions in the incumbents’ primary or rewarding them for their good positions, there doesn’t seem to be much reason things would change.
@Don
Tunisia is listed under “Jurisdictions that have reached agreements in substance as of November 30, 2014 and have consented to being included on this list”
I wonder if people in the muslim world have added incentives to seek out a non-FATCA bank. Some Kuwaitis were trying to get zakat (an obligation on muslims to give 2.5% of their wealth to charity each year) reclassified as a tax for IRS purposes, presumably because you can’t take donations to non-U.S. charities off U.S. tax returns while you are alive so their zakat wouldn’t offset their \U.S. tax Other muslims seem not to have liked the idea of calling a religious obligation a tax. I can imagine that this would be an issue for members of religious groups that tithe.
Petros, Polly: when I immerse myself in this blog and this issue, I’m ready to vote for any US politician who speaks in my favor.
However, when I calm down a bit and start reading on US politics, the same thing always happens. Expat issues aside, it seems to me Obama is indeed as good a president as can be hoped for. This goes for the economy and health care, among other things. And the Republicans just seem like a bunch of crazies. I’ve lived in Europe too long to be impressed by their religious invocations, “family values”, and other nonsense. And they are too obviously in bed with big money to make any economic sense. Their talk of simplifying the tax code is just hot air. And it seems to me that “Republicans Overseas” and such are ready to use the issue to get expat votes, while intending to do nothing. They are in this sense no better for us than Democrats Abroad. At least DA has made it pretty clear that they AGREE with FATCA, no hypocrisy or fake promises there. And DA would like to mitigate the nastry side effects a little, but the effort is so half-hearted that the message is quite clear too: don’t hold your breath.
So for me, frankly, voting GOP would be against most of what I believe, I’d have to be desperate, but most of all I’d have to believe they are sincere in switching to RBT. I don’t believe they are. Voting Democrat would be natural for me, except that one doesn’t usually shoot oneself in the foot, especially voluntarily, and repeatedly. Conclusion: I don’t know who to vote for.
Polly: my impression is that there are few black US citizen expats. Given that black people in the US mostly vote Dem, and that they voted almost as one for Obama, it seems to me a given that they usually support Obama, yes. And I would imagine that those affected by our common problem here (being US persons abroad regarding FATCA and such) would, like me, have issues with voting GOP. Perhaps even stronger issues because of how the GOP is positioned, with policies interpreted to be racist (voter ID, felon purges, etc).
What I mean is that our common cause, strong as it may be, will probably not unite electorally.
@Fred
Yeah- I was thinking along those lines about who would vote for who. And if any black voters could be influenced as to who they would chose?
I just remembered one black expat- isn’t there some famous basketball player who lives in Taiwan and plays for their team? Didn’t he renounce?
I unable to consider Obama a good president or even a good person, as he has attacked my family.
This guy raised over €200,000 via crowdfunding without even trying to help Greece pay its debts.
Another $69,000 for IBS should be easy for this worthy cause.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/greek-debt-crowdfunding-drive-raises-175952196.html