Witnessing History

As Ariadne and I prepare for our trip to Greece, this weekend provides an interesting hinge moment for both my two nations.  The short and accurate take on things is America continues to get better, towards a more perfect union, while things in Greece are somehow actually getting worse.

And that phrase from the Constitution is a succinct reminder why America is America and Greece is Greece.

The legalization of gay rights in all 50 states, a lightening bolt of civil rights from the Supreme Court, is another example of what makes America America: citizens organizing and striving for their rights in a democracy, and believing they can win because of our democratic institutions.  They did, and they won at the highest court in the land.

Greeks, on the other hand, have neither the belief that their democracy works nor that their institutions are just or that they can win.  There was hope that PM Alexis Tsipras would be a little different but he seems to lack political skills and has completely overplayed his 'hand.' As soon as he took office he started to negotiate via blustery press releases and press conferences. Instead of saying, 'look, I know we messed up but the big question is what does Europe do with Greece now'  Tsipras has done the opposite for 4 months. That attitude seems to have played into the hands of Eurozone hardliners in Germany who obviously have no sympathy for the Syriza government.

But Europe should have sympathy for the Greek people.  But they don't.

I imagine the only solution is for President Obama or Treasury Secretary Lew to call German PM Angela Merkel and say "Cut Greece some slack. Your banks have been reimbursed and there is no reason to be putative. After all, Germany should remember what happens when you rob a nation of it's dignity and ruin it's politics. Bottom line: the US does not want a NATO ally being driven out of the Eurozone and into the arms of rogue like Putin or China."

Hopefully that will happen. And in turn Greek voters will demand institutions that serve the public good and the Greek political class will show some patriotism, pay their taxes and stop stashing their money in Switzerland (like Nazis, climate change-loving sheiks and other ne'er do wells).

And Ari and I will have a front row seat. We will be in Thessaoloniki on June 30, the day Greece may default, and in my mom's hometown village on July 5, the day Tsipras wants a referendum on the Eurozone deal.

I'll try to blog as often as possible, looking back at a country that continues to strive to be more perfect while typing from hotels in a nation just trying to survive.

A few more notes:

• I'll never understand the opposition to gay rights or gay anything.  Until it's mandatory gay marriage, what is there to get fired up about? The small-minded opponents of gay rights often say that that community is outside the mainstream, but that's exactly the opposite.  In my lifetime gays have only asked for mainstream American rights: join the Boy Scouts; openly serve in the Armed Forces; get married.  Who are these weirdos?
• As I blogged before, Greece needs to be more like America. Instead of looking towards Russia or China what Tsipras should really do, if Greece is forced to leave the Eurozone and into a Grexit with drachmas, is ask for a TPP-style trade pact with the US.  It could be a play at regional stability in the shaky, ISIS-haunted eastern Mediterranean that links the economies of Greece, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries that are democracies. Greek olive oil could completely dominate the US market! I'm not an economist but seems like a good idea, right?

Greek voters may decide world economy's future

"Greek voters may decide world economy's future."  That's the headline, on page A15, for one of the Washington Post's 3 articles on today's Greek elections.

For most peoples, that headline would be a bit intimidating.  But Greek voters have decided the fate of the world's future before. We did it at Thermopylae, at Marathon, at Guagamela.  We were the first nation to defeat the Axis Powers in World War II.*  We established three of the greatest cities of all time in Athens, Constantinople and Alexandria.  

We may even smite Germany in soccer this week.

Bring it on.

Like many Greek-Americans, I have gone through bouts of hand wringing in anticipation of today's vote (which, by the way, will likely be inconclusive).  

I don't like the idea that New Democracy, the centrist party seen as the counterbalance to the leftist Syriza, winning today.  They are the heirs to George Bush in Greek politics; they cooked the books and lied to the EU about Greece's debt and ran the country into the ground, leaving a mess for Barack Obama/PASOK (the traditional Greek left party) to clean up.  Voting for them would be like rewarding Mitt Romney with the presidency in November so he can do what Bush 41 did to the economy: tax breaks for the wealthy and no regulation of our criminal financial sector. 

But my loathing of New Democracy is not the main reason I hope Syriza wins today.  No, after much internal debate I actively hope Syriza wins so that finally, a political party and more importantly a people will stand up to the barbarians (AGAIN in the case of Greece) and say NO to austerity.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras wants to keep Greece in the euro zone, but he - and the battered Greek people - also want the troika of the European Central Bank, World Bank and IMF to compromise and give Greece a better deal.  

[Syriza will also - and finally - start collecting more taxes from wealthy Greeks, a huge part of the problem with the nation's financial crisis.] 

Most Greeks believe, and liberal economists such as Paul Krugman agree, that the current bailout deal has mainly helped German banks recoup their money.  However, the bailout and debt repayment schedule has NOT helped Greece's economy grow.  It has devastated the Greek health care system and shaken Greek civic society and even bruised the arrogant Greek psyche.  

Austerity and only caring about paying back your debts is not a successful program for any nation, as the U.S. can attest, and does not lead to growth.

How Greek voters react today will beg the big question for Angela Merkel and Germany.  It's time to act like a responsible nation, but will they? The Germans fashioned the current monetary union for Europe - and have benefitted like no other nation on the continent.  

If Syriza wins and forms a government, Germany will be asked: do they care more about Europe?  Or do they, and Merkel, mainly care about protecting German banks from their willfully-made bad investments?  

The Germans should compromise, and renegotiate Greece's debt repayment, if they are serious about the euro and saving Europe.  Doing so would go a long way in deciding the fate of the world's economy.  It can't always be the Greeks!

But as has often happened in our planet's history, the Greeks will have to decide the world's future one more time, in this instance by rejecting austerity today.