Source: Global Times
Author: Zhang Jiadong
The latest survey jointly conducted by the Wall Street Journal and National Public Opinion Research Center (NORC) shows that Americans are carrying the values of the United States who have defined the United States.The importance of defining the personality of the American nationality on behalf of the people is declining the importance of Americans.Why is there such a change?The author believes that there are mainly the following reasons:
The first is the cyclical factor in the U.S. political trend.Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States mainly adopted a classic liberal policy like other major western countries.However, the Great Depression and Crisis caused by free capitalism have greatly changed the world's awareness of government -market relations, and emphasized that the trend of government intervention, such as Keynesism, began to occupy the upper hand.However, in the 1970s, the problem of stagnation caused by government intervention became difficult to solve. Therefore, the British Prime Minister Sachel, who came to power in 1979, and the US President Reagan, who came to power in 1981, carried out new liberalism in his country at the same time.The effectiveness of this reform was obvious at the time, and the US economy entered a fast track.However, the consequences of the reform of neo -liberalism also quickly accumulate with the rapid economic growth, and the gap between the rich and poor society has rapidly widen.The US President Biden tried to correct this problem after coming to power, but the gap between the rich and the poor has not narrowed. Instead, national debt has accelerated its expansion. Similar policies and reality continue to destroy the confidence of the American people for the government and the country.
The second is the continuous fermentation of the structural factors of ethnic and population.On the one hand, immigrants are increasing in the proportion of the US population.In the sources of population growth from 2010 to 2020, foreign immigrants accounted for 60%, and this trend will continue.On the other hand, white people's dominance in the United States is still weakening rapidly.In 1980, white people who did not include Latin American people accounted for 80%of the total US population, and this proportion has fallen to 58%by 2020.At the same time, the absolute value of white people is also declining, and the white population decreased by 5 million from 2010 to 2020.And in the younger generation, the proportion of white people is lower.In the youngest generation, the United States has no main ethnic group, and an important link to maintain the national identity has been severely weakened, and it has become more diversified with religious beliefs.
At the same time, the status of non -white groups in the US economy is getting higher and higher, and the enthusiasm of political participation has risen.For example, in California, the largest state in the United States, the proportion of white people is only 37%.The rise in non -white population economy and political status inevitably causes the alertness of white groups, especially white supremeists, and the transformation of ethnic differences into a channel for political differences is also more convenient.This will make the American conservatives more conservative, radicals will be more aggressive, and it will be more difficult to form a political consensus.Political consensus will be weakened, and the recognition of the country will naturally decline.
Third, the epidemic syndrome continues.During the epidemic, the U.S. government ignored scientific facts and negative actions, and even put the "keeping the economy" above "protecting lives".However, the significant increase in expenses during the epidemic period has become a key cause of historic high inflation in the post -American epidemic era.In order to cope with the high inflation rate, the Fed had to continue to raise interest rates, which also led to a fierce turbulent US financial system.These are also destroying the trust and emotional dependence of the United States for the country.
In addition to the above three factors, informatization is also an important catalytic force for the changes in US political and social values.With the advent of the new information era represented by artificial intelligence, the speed of changes in structural factors such as the population ethnic group of the American population has continued to speed up.Therefore, the problem is not that Americans are "not patriotic", but that Americans are changing and American changes have not kept up, and the two are even more uncoordinated.
