Changing Opinions on America – Econlib

In the 1980s, I stumbled upon a piece in a French magazine that recounted the practices of the American border patrol along the Mexican frontier. The journalist, seemingly with a tinge of admiration, noted that they refrained from using police dogs—an indication of a certain respect for human rights. Despite my attempts to locate this article, it remains elusive.

Regardless of the accuracy of this memory, it seems that for decades, even those who criticized American values often held a grudging respect for its traditions. There was, perhaps, a quiet envy of the American experience.

Fast forward to today, and the landscape has dramatically shifted. Take, for instance, the recent incident involving South Korean workers at an LG-Hyundai facility in Georgia. Following a police raid, these individuals found themselves arrested, shackled, and imprisoned for a week before being allowed to return home. The Wall Street Journal shared the poignant words of an engineer’s wife, who expressed her devastation upon learning her husband was treated like a criminal: “It made me so angry,” she lamented.

Lee said she was heartbroken to hear her husband, an LG Energy employee, was in shackles. “Treating him like a felon—it made me so angry,” she said.

Eventually, her husband, along with 330 other workers, returned to South Korea on a flight organized by their government. Upon his arrival, his wife emotionally declared:

I don’t want him to go back there.

“There,” of course, refers to the United States. A more scathing report by the Financial Times detailed how, despite a last-minute offer from former President Donald Trump for the workers to stay in the U.S., only one chose to accept, while the rest returned home vowing never to set foot in America again. The article highlighted that while Korean companies often misused visas for their workers dispatched to the U.S., they felt trapped by Washington’s refusal to provide short-term work visas necessary for completing projects on schedule.

Another returning worker said that “we should have followed the rules properly.” Seoul should negotiate the visa issue with Washington, the worker said, but added that “I don’t want to go back to the US.”

Interestingly, I recently discovered a foreign university’s website listing countries deemed high-risk for cybersecurity, where faculty members are required to borrow specially configured devices for travel. The list, in order, included:

• United States
• China
• Russia
• Iran
• India
• North Korea

One can’t help but wonder if this list, with the U.S. topping it, reflects a growing sentiment of anti-américanisme primaire—what we used to call “crude anti-Americanism.” Perhaps, in this context, there’s little room for humor regarding the findings. After all, American border agents have the authority to scrutinize electronic devices at points of entry.

America is navigating tumultuous waters. Those who cherish the nation should be the most concerned about its trajectory.

——
* In 1984, Georges Suffert, then Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Le Point in Paris, published Les nouveaux cow-boys. Essai sur l’anti-américanisme primaire (The New Cowboys: Essay on Crude Anti-Americanism). Suffert worked alongside Maurice Roy, another Deputy Editor-in-Chief and economics editor, who had previously published Vive le Capitalisme! (Long Live Capitalism!). I was fortunate to count Roy among my friends. Today, it seems both France and America are experiencing a significant shift, akin to a new geological epoch.