America’s Bad Image
Can We Really Improve It?
By Daniel Muniz

According to many polls, much of the world’s population doesn’t think very highly of the United States including many longtime allies. Consequently, there are always plenty of national political figures of both parties who want to polish up this country’s image to the world, although it is usually done in connection with a campaign promise.

And in every presidential election cycle, there are candidates who want to pursue this worthless crusade.

But the fatal flaw to this endeavor is that it may not be in America’s best interest to devote excessive time, money, and resources to clean up our global reputation because the harsh reality is that it is not possible to achieve that objective. All what this rhetoric really accomplishes is to provide good media buzz during an election season or to raise a political profile. Here are some of the insurmountable obstacles:

Economics
There are over four billion people who live in countries that are economically worse off than Mexico. To no surprise, their viewpoint of what America needs do to clean up its act, especially among the poor, is far beyond than what this country is capable of doing. To be frank, much of the world feels that the United States should be Santa Claus by redistributing its wealth to them even though many countries are already the recipient of our foreign aid packages.

Furthermore, according to Marxist doctrine, a rich person is only rich because he or she oppressed someone else in order to get it. Accordingly, America is a wealthy nation because we exploited the world and the anti-globalization crowd has been able to magnify this accusation most acutely for over a decade. In essence, there really is no practical way to overcome our financially successful image unless we are indeed willing redistribute our own wealth to the rest of the impoverished planet and become destitute.

Of course socialist European nations would very much like to see the United Sates embrace socialism because they feel that the free market is the source of the world’s problems. Ironically, there has been quite a role reversal now that France is considered to be one of the most socialist oriented countries in the world while China has become the most free market nation on the planet. Times have definitely changed over the past several decades.

But what is most tragic about wealth is that the countries that should already be doing exceedingly well in economic growth are still mired in abject poverty even though they fully adhere to the principles of socialism and the racism of Yankee (or gringo) Go Home. There are many nations that have been blessed with abundant natural resources like oil such as Mexico, Nigeria, Angola, and Venezuela. Yet, instead of booming economies their populations are still bitterly impoverished and their futures are grim.

Global Literacy
Much of the world is illiterate. That may sound like a horrible assessment but illiteracy greatly limits the ability of critical thinking and it very much restricts the capacity to obtain credible news and accurate information about current events and about the world itself. Inevitably, this leads to ignorance which can easily by exploited by numerous foreign leaders, political parties, and radical religious groups. Much of the world hates America but they really don’t understand the reasons why or are even aware of the facts other than the perception that we are a bad country.

Ignorance
Ignorance exists even among our allies in Europe and it is increasingly widespread. Polls reveal that large segments of Europeans, especially among the youth, believe in all kinds of half-baked conspiracy theories about America, such as George W. Bush plotting the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. In fact, conspiracies about the United States thrive all around the world and they take on mythic proportions.

Political Correctness
Europe stands in the vanguard of forsaking its own rich heritage and history along with its common sense and reason because of political correctness. In fact, everyone can heap the world’s problems on America while cheerfully embracing their own double standards and hypocrisy. For example, racism only exists in America while many countries blatantly practice it on a daily basis. Only Americans hate illegal aliens while much of the world maintains harsh policies against illegal immigration. This list of hypocrisy can go on forever.

American Media
Much of the information that the world gets about the United States comes directly from our press like the New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. And since many of these news organizations are blatantly left wing, they present a much distorted and unbalanced view of America. Unfortunately, foreign media sources rely on these liberal news wires.

Force Projection
Perhaps nothing is more alarming than a mighty country having the ability to insert itself anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time. People are rightfully concerned about the rise of China’s military but they will not have the capabilities of force projection for at least another 30 years. Sure, China can support regional conflicts but they cannot impose their will anywhere they choose.

In all truthfulness, this is a legitimate fear because the United States does have the most powerful military on the planet and its capabilities are enormous. Although we can articulate our foreign policy agenda, our intentions are subject to manipulation due to ignorance and political correctness.

In summary, improving our image abroad is simply not possible and there is not much we can do to stop people from hating us because of the external factors that are beyond our control. All that we can do as a nation is exercise sound judgment and use common sense when dealing with the global community. As for making the world like us, that is a pipe dream.

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