Why We Voters Must be Suspicious When Politicians Demonize Other Countries

In the U.S. there is no easier way to appeal to voter emotions than to tell them some other country is planning to attack us. A President running in the middle of a war has a better chance of being reelected. Demonizing Russia during the Cold War screwed up things so badly some of our troubles today go back to events that long ago. I'm reading a book on the history of U.S/Iranian relationships over the last 100 years. During the Cold War we mucked around Iran's internal politics because we were paranoid about Russia. Not long ago W. Bush referred to Iran as an "Axis of evil." Russia was never the threat our politicians claimed it was. We saw that when the Soviet Union came to an end with a whimper. Iran is not and never was an "Axis of Evil."

Today China has taken over top spot in U.S. propaganda politics. Like Russia in the Cold War it is portrayed is an economic giant. Trump especially used China as a political tool. Biden has done a little tough talk about it. Just how powerful is the economy of China?

Comparing it to the whimper of the Soviet Union may not be a perfectly correct but claiming it's economy is an unstoppable powerhouse is far fetched. China remains a poor country. Where does the impression come from it is so successful?

It comes from Chinese press releases. These are reinforced by politicians who use the press releases for their own political purposes. You will almost never read anything about China that does not focus on its Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP numbers are in China's press releases. China's GDP has been growing faster than that of the U.S. and much of the Western world.

Economists often try to point out China's per capita income.  That paints an entirely different picture. It has a huge population living on the edge of destitution. Rural people in the U.S. are productivity powerhouses producing so much food we send it around the world. Rural people in China are too poor to afford the machinery and technology to do this. It is all they can do to survive.

 Here in the U.S. we should take advantage of this. We should maximize food sales to China because it cannot feed itself. Rural China sends workers to its cities where they manufacture things we can buy on the cheap. Trump's political idea to demonize China and cut trade had it backwards. He should have been expanding trade with China.