Illustration: Liu Rui / GT

July 4th is Independence Day in the United States. The White House will host a celebration for thousands of essential workers and military families on July 4 on the South Lawn to show the Democratic administration’s success in tackling the epidemic and recovering the economy. But there has been a lot of criticism around such a party as around 12,000 new cases have been confirmed and over 200 people have died in a single day. About a quarter of people newly infected in the United States fall victim to the Delta variant

The Biden administration is desperate for American achievements today, such as trying to sift bronze from a pile of dirt. However, the United States faces many uncertainties over the arrival of Independence Day. Less than half of the total population of the United States has been fully vaccinated while the expansion of the vaccination rate has encountered practical difficulties due to the low willingness to be vaccinated among the rest of the population. The transmission rate of the Delta variant is very high and the effectiveness of existing vaccines is being tested. In addition, after several rounds of stimulus measures, the United States has accumulated significant risks, including inflation. Many are worried about the real strength of the country’s recovery after pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

After being established as a nation for 245 years, the United States is now in its least confident phase. The bad practice of party politics has seriously eroded the effectiveness of the American democratic system. The racial question is almost insurmountable and its escalation shows a certain irreversibility. Washington’s inability to cope with a public crisis has been exposed in the epidemic, and it can now only rely on vaccines. But this policy is a gamble, as scientists generally believe that at least for now, vaccines alone cannot end the epidemic.

And the fact that the White House Thousand Party will be held in the absence of progress or definitive conclusions on the Miami building collapse rescue effort shows the real indifference of the United States in disguise. by their humanitarian rhetoric. More than a hundred people are still missing under this huge pile of debris, but the country does not intend to confirm their situation even a week later. The country is entering a season of joy led by the president as it is not even confirmed if the missing are alive.

The world has clearly seen that the United States is in fact a country where Social Darwinism prevails. Capital is like its locomotive. In the business and first-class cars sit the elites of the country, in the back are part of the middle class and some of the most crowded and shabby cars belong to the bottom of society. Some of the poorest people even sit outside or on the roofs of cars. The United States belongs to the elite. He certainly only deals with the middle class. And the elites are telling the poor of America that they are allowed to stay on this train after all, and that in itself that is happiness for people like you.

This interpretation worked when only the United States and part of the West entered into modernization. But as some emerging economies, notably China, grew, US confidence in their path began to falter like never before. The United States has become a stalled growth superpower, extremely uneven, unable to cope with major crises, the advantage of which has largely depended on its past legacy. Now the country is starting to worry about the future, anxiously calculating the point at which it will be overtaken by China in terms of the economic aggregate.

The United States still retains some power to rally countries internationally, but this rallying power is achieved through coercion, even intimidation, rather than the conviction of allies and developing countries. In the past, the United States had sufficient capital and resources to manufacture global public goods, function as the global economic engine, and be the primary provider of international aid. But now the United States has become more and more selfish, openly using international tools it controls to expand American personal interests.

All of this may be reasons that prompted the Biden government to throw a big White House party despite the virus risks and to encourage other places to hold celebrations. They highlight “accomplishments” but minimize hidden worries. Biden’s style of governance is similar to that of his predecessor Donald Trump.

The United States undoubtedly faces most of the challenges on this Independence Day. The Biden government is believed not to care how best to tackle these challenges, but how best to give voters the best impression, as they focus on the midterm elections to be held next year. .