By Stephen Helgesen
For those intrepid watchers of American politics, it comes as no surprise that the game of politics has become dirtier and meaner over time.
The “take no prisoners” and “never let a good crisis go to waste” strategies are now the two most commonplace ones being employed by average, politically-engaged Americans.
We need only look at the often aggressive interaction of family members on holidays or watch angry participants in town halls for proof.
Americans take a position, choose a side and then defend their positions, sometimes to the death. There is no room for facts-based discussions, honest contemplation or civility. It’s gone, replaced by political zombie-like kamikazis ready to fall on their swords instead of sheathing them.
To those who’ve just awakened from the deep slumber reserved for the unaware or unconcerned, this is not only confusing but frightening, especially when we look back to bygone days when politics was not mortal combat.
To those outside our borders like the oh-so-proper Europeans (where I am), Americans’ political battlefield tactics have finally proven what they have long believed about us, literally for generations, that we are boorish, reactionary, and primitive beings born with unredeemable DNA, living within a flawed system, populated by greedy powerful men.
They ignore, of course, the recent viciousness of their own politics, jailing and disqualifying dissidents and opponents, as seen in France, the U.K. the Netherlands, and Germany, not to mention, Russia.
They and many progressives and liberals in the U.S. imagine they are above such things, but decry Americans’ ambitions to pursue personal wealth and success and characterize it as ignorance of our collective obligations to society at large.
The same critics use the metaphor of cream (wealth) rising to the top of standing milk (a fair society) to accuse rich people of not being responsible for their own success like former U.S. President Obama did in 2012 when he said, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
In the eyes of many, we are considered selfish, egotistical and traitors to the collective good, and it is precisely this individual versus collective difference that is the principal reason for non-Americans’ dislike and confusion about us and our culture. The secondary one is, of course, our style and rhetoric.
We are also partially to blame for this lack of understanding because we have not cared enough about what others think of us. That space has been filled by scandals and other cultural problems.
Here at home, during the last 20-30 years, cracks have appeared in the American self-image and consciousness.
One of the biggest is the deep-seated wealth envy and generational amnesia that relates to capitalism. Both have served to pit normal everyday Americans against each other and has become the cause célèbre of the Left in America (read: the rich 1% are the cause of America’s poverty).
Back in my early days, we applauded those who were able to make their fortunes through hard work and innovation. We admired them and wanted to be like them. We didn’t chase them through the streets with tiki torches and vilify them. We said “bravo” and “teach me your secrets.”
Our presidents did their best to walk the political and ideological tightropes and not rock the ship of state too much. A little tweaking to the economy here and a nip and tuck there. Not too much, not too little, just enough to satisfy their bases and to get re-elected and maintain the equilibrium.
We, the electorate, got it.
As long as the powers that be observed the established political rules of the game and didn’t give away the store of our markets to our competitors and allow too many unlawful immigrants into the country to steal American jobs or start wars.
In short, we let them do what their predecessors did.
Times changed since the recession of the 80s and the stock market meltdown of the early 2000s and the 12 destructive years of the Obama and Biden administrations.
Everyday Americans became weary of the relentless bombardment of scapegoat messaging about the evils of all of America’s millionaires.
Now, since many millions of Americans are millionaires due to increased home values, the focus has shifted to America’s billionaires whom the Left maintains have a death grip on the throats of the proletariat and are singularly responsible for all of our country’s ills.
That belief is now an obsession and has empowered a whole generation and many different voter/citizen segments to revolt against American politicians who still strive to maintain the rights of the individual to succeed and then use their wealth or position to influence others.
They see this as somehow antithetical to our traditional values and are now using all their power and wiles to unseat the current incumbent of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and all his supporters in Congress and the Senate by any lawful (and sometimes unlawful) means. Contrary to the belief of many Republicans or conservatives, the Democrat/Progressive/Socialist movement is not dead.
It may be searching for a raison d’être, but it is definitely not lying motionless on a cold slab in the political morgue.
The movement is busy sharpening its swords and training its troops and recruiting new true believers for the mid-term elections of 2026 and for new social/cultural confrontations that are sure to happen on America’s streets.
The first seven, hectic, action-filled months of the Trump administration have shocked many on the left and even some on the right.
It is as if Donald Trump has dumped all manner of traditional conservative complaints, campaign promises and many personal grievances into the political cement mixer and has left it to rotate unattended while he searches for new items to be cast into the mix, knowing that it will be extremely difficult to separate them from the aggregate once the process has begun.
A clear example of this strategy is the recent passage of his “Big Beautiful Bill” which contains, as he himself has said, “something for everyone.”
What he didn’t mention was that much of what was in the 900-page bill were many things that reversed left America’s plans, programs and fundamental desires for shaping their America, which is why they are livid.
So the fight is on, but instead of being just a one-on-one ideological or political battle between two competing American ideological groups, it has become an international brawl due to Trump’s big beautiful tariff and trade war which has touched the shores of even the U.S.’ most steadfast trading partners.
An August 1 deadline is looming for the implementation of double-digit tariff percentages on the E.U., for example.
A former Danish diplomat and now member of a well-known Danish think tank recently told me that we Americans shouldn’t be so greedy, that many accommodations have been made through agreements with the WTO (World Trade Organisation) that have codified the current status of tariffs with the U.S.
He said that he and many other European economists and experts in international trade would probably accept a 10% tariff across the board increase on E.U. exports to the U.S., provided that the E.U. could levy a similar across the board 10% tariff on all American exports to Europe.
I was stunned to hear that from a man with considerable world diplomatic experience and a deep knowledge of international trade who, apparently, knows precious little about Americans and even less about our current president and his dedication to “Making America Great Again” by putting America first.
That Trump would accept such a zero sum game is at the very least, extremely naive.
It should not have surprised me, though, considering the epidemic of Trump hatred among many Europeans which has caused a kind of mass tunnel vision or myopia that obstructs the truth about today’s Americans and especially those who believe that America’s strength is not dependent on the weakness of its allies.
There are those here in Europe that believe that compromise will out and that Americans and Donald Trump will come to their senses. In that regard, America’s friends must understand that the U.S. was not built on compromise and the country doesn’t exist as the primary world bodyguard by compromising on real threats or selling out its principles.
James Russell Lowell (former U.S. Ambassador to Spain and the U.K. in the 19th century) may have said it best: “Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof.”
And on the subject of fighting mean and dirty, Sean Connery may have said it best in the movie the Untouchables when he referred to an assassin who was sent to kill him and was later dispatched by Connery’s sawed-off shotgun: “Isn’t that just like a wop (Italian immigrant), brings a knife to a gunfight.
Stephen Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat specializing in international trade who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven on American politics, and has written over 1,500 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He now lives in Denmark and is a frequent political commentator on Danish media. He can be reached at: stephenhelgesen@gmail.com
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