Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has gotten me through the worst of times in contemporary American democracy. Rather than grappling with the fact that we started an elective war with a country that didn’t attack us during the Bush years, I took solace in the workings of “The West Wing” under President Jed Bartlet and his brilliant, tireless staff.
Rather than making sense of a political coup unfolding over a private affair in the late 1990s, I got goosebumps over Andrew Shepherd’s off-the-cuff takedown of his political opponent from “The American President.” And although we had a mostly stable democracy in 2012 when his HBO series “The Newsroom” began, Will McAvoy’s opening tirade as a burned-out broadcast journalist has to be a hallmark of American pop culture.
“The Newsroom” has since been panned as preachy, even criticized by Sorkin, who found it difficult to weave real-life events into the drama that had lots to say on the state of journalism and broadcast media. I’d say it holds up today, with McAvoy’s character who identifies as a Republican, opining America’s fall. But not for any of the reasons the far right is shouting. Here’s McAvoy/Sorkin (2012):
“There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined — twenty-five of whom are allies. … So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about! …
We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. …We aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. — Will McAvoy “The Newsroom”
“We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy.
“We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”
So was McAvoy/Sorkin right? Is America still:
- Seventh in literacy — It’s worse. World Population Review leaves the United States out of the top 30 as of 2022. And this ranking doesn’t address how poorly Americans compare in reading levels and comprehension. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54 percent of American adults read below a 6th-grade level.
- 27th in math — According to USA Today, American teenagers ranked the USA 31st in math literacy out of 79 countries and economies in 2020: “America has a smaller-than-average share of top-performing math students, and scores have essentially been flat for two decades.”
- 22nd in science — Pew Research Center shows USA students at 24th in this 2017 ranking.
- 49th in life expectancy — Worldometers.info ranks the United States — the only industrialized nation without universal health coverage — 46th for life expectancy, which is 79 years. America ranks below Estonia and above Panama.
- 178th in infant mortality — I’m not sure where this number came from. In 2020, the United States ranked 50th in infant mortality among the 195 countries and territories measured, according to World Population Review. That’s significantly higher than dozens of developed countries. Forbes notes the U.S. has nearly the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries, and that rate is rising: “Each year, approximately 700 American women die during pregnancy, childbirth or subsequent complications.” This is happening as states pass forced-birth laws restricting reproductive choices for women and their families.
- First in incarcerated citizens per capita — Yes, the United States still has the highest per capita incarceration rate (as of May 2021), with 639 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population, according to Statista.com. El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Thailand, and Palau rounded out the top five countries in that esteemed category. The United States is also home to the largest number of prisoners: more than 2 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. in 2020. (China’s estimated prison population totaled 1.71 million that year.)
We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. — Will McAvoy “The Newsroom”
So yes, American anxiety about our place in the world is real. And that anxiety (factoring in a barrage of lies and an uninformed citizenry) is putting stress on our democracy. We’re not keeping up, in part because we spent decades prioritizing low taxes for the top income earners, giving corporations more rights than citizens and minting oligarchs rather than creating world-class public schools, establishing affordable health care and building enviable infrastructure. But that’s another discussion.
