Our entire family of six started its migration to the US of A in 1980.
Jimmy Carter was President. The economy was in disarray with high inflation and overall malaise. Though we were no strangers to such conditions, having come from the Philippines where the regime of despotic Marcos was in bloom wreaking havoc everywhere. Somewhat similarly the politics in the US was trending badly. Iran held the entire US embassy staff hostage to the surprise of the entire world.
As a matter of fact on our very arrival where we bunked with the mother-in-law, we first met her in her flat after she had come from her downtown employer having attended a city-wide union protest rally for higher wages. The entire hotel industry in the city was on strike.
Still we were in high spirits having landed in the proverbial land of milk and honey. Rearing to go in pursuit of our American dream.
We readily found entry-level jobs, while the kids were quickly enrolled in public schools. San Francisco as then was a revered land of immigrants, so the following adaptation came quite easily for us minority migrants.
Quickly the presidency of Carter ended, and he was denied a second term. So the golden area of Reagan ensued. And our spirits went up even higher. In the midst of all this, our journey to normalcy and integration to the local polity came relatively smoothly. We had nice regular jobs, sufficient enough to enable us to save for and buy our first home. And a few years later we secured our second home in pursuit of better dreams for our kids.
But we could not say the same for the public educational system. It started failing its reputation as exemplar part of the vaunted US public school system unarguably regarded as second to none. The advent of failed multiculturalism started seeping into the very core of the aging system. All in pursuit for accommodation of the many ethnic groups in the growing immigrant categories. Test scores started ebbing as with other critical rankings, all this while the state was spending more per capita. Though the powerful teachers unions progressed and held sway, exercising great political powers. And with access to almost unlimited resources it did not take long for them to engage in politicization of their positions.
This polarity is seen running deeper into the core and foundations of the country. The incipient drive to divide the country between the natives and the new immigrants started to show in policy and law. This carried over in the social milieu and into politics.
Now the country is badly divided, as to make it hardly recognizable from the times of its founding to its ascent as world power in the 50's. So that now even the concept of making America great again finds no unanimity, with some groups bent on framing the country as undesirable because of what it has done. Thus, nationalism has not only lost its luster, but many now regard it as an unacceptable concept.
Trump's overarching goal then is to bring the US of A back closer to what it was, during a halcyon time when the country was well regarded and respected for its strength and power.
But a bitterly divided country does not lend easily to agreement in purpose and action. Recalcitrance being a very difficult obstacle to tame.
