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U.S. President Donald Trump smiles without wearing a mask at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, July 3, 2020. /AP
Editor's note: Stephen Ndegwa is a Nairobi-based communications expert, lecturer and scholar at the United States International University-Africa, author and international affairs columnist. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
July 4 is America's Independence Day. Naturally, it is the most important federal holiday that observes the Declaration of Independence, marking the U.S. congressional declaration that the 13 American colonies were free from the British monarchy, and were now "united, free and independent states".
The euphoria of independence is not a preserve of the States. Every country on Earth celebrates its national day with pomp and pageantry. Unfortunately, since the advent of COVID-19, celebrations are not exactly what they used to be, more so for millions of Americans who plan to go out to the beaches and public recreation places for the country's Independence Day weekend.
Indeed, America's Independence Day in 2020 will be very different from the previous occasions in much of America's 244-year history. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, people have been dissuaded from crowding to avoid contracting the virus. And, if anyone has to leave his or her home, he or she needs to wear a mask in order to reduce the chances of either infecting others, or being infected.
Now, to wear a mask would seem quite a straightforward requirement for anyone who wants to survive the virus; but not in America. The mask has become a symbol of resistance across "the land of the free". Town hall meetings held countrywide to discuss COVID-19 prevention measures have turned into political, name-calling contests.
During these public sessions with city mayors and state governors, the majority of Americans have expressed their horror at being required to wear masks in public, declaring in the strongest terms possible that the edict interferes with their freedom of movement and expression, including curtailing all other freedoms that make America greater than other nations in the world.
States are not reading from the same script either. Some have given orders for the wearing of masks in public, and others halted reopening plans as they come to grips with the grim reality of the pandemic.
Ironically, the biggest opponent of wearing masks was President Donald Trump, who wears his resistance to any COVID-19 measures like a badge of honor.
However, the U.S. registered the highest daily infections since the pandemic began, with a record 52,000 cases on July 3. Realizing the severe situation, just two days before that, Trump changed his attitude towards wearing masks in an interview with the Fox Business Network, "If I were in a tight situation with people, I would absolutely."
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before the U.S. Senate Committee in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 30, 2020. /Xinhua
According to medical experts, this spiraling curve is still on the first wave, which means it will get worse before it gets better. Right now infections have surged in 36 states, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects that there will be 20,000 deaths in the next three weeks.
But even amid such doom and gloom, the level of denial from top down concerning COVID-19's unmistakable impact is astounding; add this deteriorating scenario to the fact that Americans have now been banned from entering the European Union because of pandemic concerns.
Analysts see the social, economic and political ravages by COVID-19 as the last straw in America's free fall of power. The chaos facing America in 2020 did not just spring out from the blue. They are a continuum of the factors that have been simmering for a while, starting with the Great Recession from 2017 to 2019.
But unbeknownst to many, we are now living in a post-American world. Carl Bildt on April 28, 2020 wrote in his article "Welcome to the Post-American World", the superpower's decline that preceded Trump's presidency is almost guaranteed.
Trump has been mopping up American troops scattered in different regions around the world, warning that his country cannot continue carrying other people's burdens. In late June, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the world should not assume that the U.S. still aspires to be the global policeman.
Apparently, America has been on a death wish. But, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who is also editor-at-large for Time magazine, sees it a little bit differently, saying that we are not really witnessing America's direct fall, but it is the "rise of the rest… where the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance".
Coupled with its internal contradictions, time's up for Uncle Sam, which could be America's second "liberation".
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