America's Reputation Nosedives
The pre-eminent Pew Research Center came out yesterday with its ongoing research on how 13 nations view America. The results are damming. It’s newsletter headline read: U.S. Image Plummets Internationally as Most Say Country Has Handled Coronavirus Badly. In the opening paragraph and after only 45 words, Pew writes: “In several countries, the share of the public with a favorable view of the U.S. is as low as it has been at any point since the Center began polling on this topic nearly two decades ago.” Two decades ago! Between COVID-19 and the faltering global economy, the U.S. reputation is crashing. The President is not faring well either.
Although Americans like to see themselves as the greatest superpower, the view from other countries does not confirm this perception. For most countries and for some time now, China is seen as the world’s leading economic power, a lead that still holds true in 2020. Only South Korea and Japan see the U.S. as the greatest economic power.
America’s reputation is in desperate need of mending. We can no longer fool ourselves in thinking we are top dog. If America were a company, let’s say America Inc., we guardians would be rushing around getting solid advice on how to save our reputation. We’d research the heck out of our stakeholders, hold focus groups, conduct in-depth interviews with key influencers, study competitors and learn how the best of the best built their reputations. We’d examine the root causes of the decline and reexamine and refine our purpose, culture and values. We’d apologize for our grave missteps and vow to take action to make sure it never happens again. We’d probably fire the CEO, board and executive team that allowed this misfortune and/or claw back compensation where it was not deserved. Shareholders would be holding our feet to the fire and we’d be doing what we had to in order to rebuild trust. Think about the sagas at Wells Fargo, Boeing and others who failed their stakeholders and blew their once esteemed reputations to smithereens. These companies got a shellacking and are only now slowly building themselves back but after much shame, humiliation and scrutiny.
So where are we as a nation? I am particularly unhappy to hear the results of this research. I guess you could say that the upcoming election will be a referendum on how much we can stand seeing our nation’s reputation nose dove so starkly.