Lebanonization of America is well underway

An empire is collapsing, says Elie Mikhael Nasrallah.

Regardless of who wins next week, the “Lebanonization” of America has begun.

Lebanonization is a term used to describe a country when politics, tribalism, national divisions, ethnic and sectarian tensions, ideological and cultural wars, and foreign meddling become so unmanageable they leave a country ungovernable.

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times brilliantly put it this way. “The United States is becoming like Lebanon and other Middle East countries in two respects. First, our political differences are becoming so deep that our two parties now resemble religious sects in a zerosum contest for power. They call theirs `Shiites and Sunnis and Maronites' or `Israelis and Palestinians.' We call ours `Democrats and Republicans,' but ours now behave just like rival tribes who believe they must rule or die. Second, as in the Middle East, so increasingly in America: Everything is now politics — even the climate, even energy, even face masks in a pandemic.”

The Lebanon I knew — I was born and raised there — is still the Lebanon of today, sitting on its “political ammonium nitrate,” not unlike the catastrophic Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut.

What do America and Lebanon have in common? Let us count the ways. With the arrival of the Palestinian refugees to Lebanon by the hundreds of thousands starting in 1948, the Lebanese state became a shadow of itself. But its political culture never changed.

In fact, William McClure Thompson, a Protestant missionary from America, wrote a book in the 1870s summarizing his findings after living in the region, saying: “The various religions and sects live together, and practise their conflicting superstitions in close proximity, but the people do not coalesce into one homogeneous community, nor do they regard each other with fraternal feelings. ... They can never form one united people, never combine for any important religious or political purpose;

Compromise is viewed as weakness ... co-operation is a taboo and for losers.

and will therefore remain weak, incapable of self-government, and exposed to the invasions and oppressions by foreigners.”

The Lebanonization of America is strikingly similar.

First, the culture wars that never subsided, dealing with gender roles, homosexuality, racial injustice, guns, race relations, and the role of religion in the public square, to name a few.

Second, the unresolved problems of immigration reform and the lack of consensus between the conservative camp and the liberal side, coupled with the flood of illegal migration.

Third, the changing face of America as more ethnic groups become visibly more powerful and demand an active space.

Fourth, the fear that the white majority feels as the demographic tsunami heads its way, and the threat to the old established order.

Fifth, the deep ideological chasm between conservatives and liberals on most contentious issues facing America. Compromise is viewed as weakness; civility is a vice, not a virtue; co-operation is a taboo and for losers.

If Lebanon's decay was due to sectarianism, lack of statehood and external exploitation of internal divisions, then America's decay was in the Lebanonization of its political culture; the elite's condescending attitudes looking down at the working white class with no university degree; and foreign meddling in elections by China, Russia and, recently, Iran.

The religious divide in Lebanon has its reflection in the ideological and political chasm in America. The flood of Palestinian refugees equates to the illegal inflow tsunami of Mexican and Latin American migrants. The notion that everything is political, and one can never trust the other side, exists equally in both countries. The “other” is the enemy, not merely the opposition. Rule or be ruled. There is a lack of reverence and trust in traditional institutions. And if Lebanon had its “political ammonium nitrate,” America has today its powder keg in the current administration.

America is, however, an empire; Lebanon is a tiny country of insignificant international presence. Here is the rub; here is the irony of history.