Politicians often warn of America’s decline – and voters often imagine it

Presidential candidates often speak about national decline in the course of the election campaign. This was the main focus of the June 2024 elections Debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

“All over the world, we are no longer respected as a country,” Trump said, and he repeated it repeatedly.

Trump went on to say that if the United States had a president that Vladimir Putin respected, “he would never have attacked Ukraine.” Trump said “we are being laughed at” and that “the reputation of the United States under this man's leadership is terrible.”

Biden countered Trump's impressive statement by arguing that the United States has “the best military in world history” and that it continues to enjoy great respect abroad.

“The idea that we are somehow this failing country,” Biden said, “I've never heard a president talk like that.”

Public polls on other countries’ opinions of the United States support Biden's position.

And yet politicians proceed to warn of a decline because they stoke fears in regards to the country's security, concerns about one other country gaining power, and anger in regards to the United States' many problems.

Messages of decline through the years

While Trump’s messages to the American Bloodbath is dramaticSuch exchanges are nothing unusual in US politics.

During the 1960 presidential election, for instance, John F. Kennedy, then U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, repeatedly warned that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union in every little thing from space exploration to international prestige.

“I don't want historians 10 years from now to say that these were the years when the tide went out for the United States,” Kennedy said. during his first television debate against his Republican opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, on September 26, 1960.

Warning of national decline has been a typical campaign message ever since, with the challenger side claiming that the country is falling behind or losing respect, forcing the incumbent side onto the defensive.

Countering messages of decline

My research examines the role of perceived threats to national status in domestic and foreign policy. I conducted an experiment with 1,079 Americans in March 2024 to learn how their concerns about their country's decline affected their foreign policy opinions.

A 3rd of respondents were randomly assigned to read a warning that said experts and politicians from each parties agree that the United States is in decline in comparison with its rivals. Another third of respondents read the alternative message, which listed facts from experts from each parties arguing that concerns about national decline are overblown. The final third read a subject that had nothing to do with politics.

Those who had examine America's decline reported higher levels of fear, anger, and anxiety than the group that had not read anything in regards to the issue. For example, one respondent wrote, “My biggest concern is that other countries will not respect us. As soon as we show weakness, other countries will try to overtake us.”

However, Americans' fears weren’t allayed by the testimony of bipartisan experts who claimed that the United States was not in decline.

About 30 percent of respondents – liberals and conservatives alike – who read that experts said concerns in regards to the nation's decline were exaggerated rejected the text's premise outright. By comparison, of those that read that the United States' global standing is declining, only 11 percent said so.

Some respondents asked if the lyrics were a joke and suggested the U.S. was becoming a “third world country.” Others pointed to the state of U.S. healthcare or reproductive rights and asked how anyone could say the country isn't falling behind.

Fighting emotions with emotions

As the Democratic nomination slate modified and Biden announced in July 2024 that he wouldn’t seek re-election, the political messages of Democratic leaders also modified.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have temporarily Fear stoked about what a second Trump term would appear like. But additionally they have used language and talked about topics that involve joy and excitementand celebrated things like Walz's tenure as a teacher and football coach and the pride Harris feels in her mother's work and sacrifices.

“Guided by optimism and faith,” Harris said in her nomination speech In August 2024, she encouraged her supporters to “write the next great chapter of the most extraordinary story ever told.”

Harris has also created an emotionally powerful counterpart to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” in the shape of “No turning back.”

In Walz's first appearance As the Democratic nominee for Vice President on August 6, he thanked Harris for “bringing joy back.” At rallies full of boisterous Call-and-responses and chantsHarris has used joy and excitement to create a vision of America’s future, contrasting her rallies with what she described than Trump's “the world is ending” rallies.

The subtitle of a press release from the Harris campaign For example, after a Trump press conference, it was said: “Split screen: joy and freedom vs. whatever that was.”

Global position of the USA within the 2024 election campaign

While Harris' rallies have largely focused on domestic issues equivalent to abortion rights and economic inequality, debates in regards to the country's global standing will reignite and persist. Survey from August 2024The second commonest reason Harris voters were more likely to support was that she would strengthen the United States' position on the earth. The second commonest reason for opposing her was other voters' belief that she would weaken the country on the world stage.

Trump has describe further the USA as a “nation in decline”. In her speech to the Democratic Party Convention, Harris described replied that She will work to make sure that “America, not China, wins the competition of the 21st century and that we strengthen our global leadership role and do not abandon it.”

Harris also noted in her acceptance speech: “You know, our opponents in this race denigrate America every day and talk about how terrible everything is. My mother had another lesson that she always taught: Don't let anyone tell you who you are. Show them who you are.”

Campaign rhetoric warning of America's decline has been common since not less than 1960, and it's not going away anytime soon. But with a brand new Democratic platform and a modified campaign, Democrats are fighting emotion with emotion. And that can likely resonate greater than telling people things aren't as bad as they fear.