I have been reading The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill. His view on America in the early 20th century is fascinating. He sees it as a country of extraordinary economic power that is lending money, expecting it to be paid back (cue Coolidge, “They hired the money, didn’t they?) and throwing its weight around a bit.
Reading his recollections, it is clear that he saw the United States as a less enlightened nation that hadn’t yet properly appreciated the responsibility that accompanies strength. As I thought about what he wrote and considered the continuing internal human rights abuses America had at that time, I realized something. We were what China has become.
Not a perfect analogy. But not a bad one, either.
