Reprinted from hartmannreport.com
Americans can hold the same idea in two different contexts at the same time: While embracing interdependence at home, we must also embrace self-reliance on the international stage
We can't build enough cars because the chips, invented here in America, are all manufactured overseas. 30% of America's oil is now being exported by giant oil corporations that are jacking up our gasoline prices because of a "shortage." This is insane!
How did the Reagan administration and neoliberals ever since get away with making our nation almost totally reliant on China and a handful of other low-wage countries for everything from the chips in our cars to our cellphones to the tech necessary to build a battleship or missile?
And who turned our energy fate over to the Saudis?
Of all the concepts that ground most Americans' idea of our country, self-reliance ranks among the top.
While much of it is based in fantasy ideas and children's tales about "pioneers" carving their own lives out of the wilderness (in reality, community was the main value that guaranteed success for frontier towns), it's nonetheless a foundational value intrinsic to Americans' notion of themselves.
Self-reliance is also the number-one meme promoted by rightwing media and billionaires, celebrated by the Republican Party, and used to market everything from guns to trucks to survival food for Trump-humpers.
"Stand on your own two feet!" is a favorite GOP mantra, particularly when discussing poor people looking for bootstraps to pull themselves up with.
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