A Promised Land

America as a Developing Country

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July 26, 2025

Funeral for a Friendship? Trump Spits at Polite, Pleasant, Insulted Canada

With Friends Like Donald...

And that’s not all we’re sorry about…

Strolling several years ago in Vancouver, Canada, I inadvertently crossed the street in front of a car after my light turned red but before the vehicle began moving. If you do this in the San Francisco Bay Area, the driver might toot and shout at you. In my native New York, you’d hear a loud honk and an even louder expletive.

The Vancouver motorist instead said, “Excuse me, did you know that you’re crossing against the light?”

Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Country

Canadians are among the nicest and most polite people on the planet. Americans are blessed to have them as neighbors.

Yet Donald Trump is spitting in these wonderful folks’ faces, on everything from fentanyl to immigration to tariffs to statehood. His spiteful barbs portend long-term damage to what once seemed our two nations’ unbreakable goodwill. This potential funeral for a friendship says much about America’s shrinking place in the world.

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June 13, 2025

Indian TV, Me and Trump’s LA Military Moves

It's Not Mainly About Immigration

Here’s my recent interview with the Indian TV network WION (World Is One News) about Trump’s deploying the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. The interview starts at roughly 1:45 in the clip.

June 7, 2025

The Manchurian President

Speaking hypothetically...What if Putin really did control Trump?

In the 1962 film, “The Manchurian Candidate,” a US soldier is captured during the Korean War and brainwashed in Manchuria (a part of China bordering Korea) by Chinese and Russian agents. They then arrange his supposedly heroic “escape” that earns him the Medal of Honor back in America.

The point of this plan? Acting as an automaton, he will then unwittingly assassinate a presidential candidate and usher in an authoritarian regime serving our enemies’ interests.

Which brings us to Donald Trump. I am not suggesting that he’s been brainwashed or that he deliberately prioritizes the Kremlin over America. His main motivators instead seem to be money, power and narcissism.

But, speaking hypothetically, what  if Trump were in fact a “Manchurian President,” brainwashed  by Russia to  undermine the United States? What would he do?

[Continue Reading]

March 23, 2025

Down But Not Under: In “No Worries” Australia, Worries About America

Also in Zimbabwe, Ireland, Lithuania, Russia (yes, even Russia)...

Feeling jumpy.

My wife and I recently returned from a vacation in Australia, a land of beautiful beaches, other natural splendors, kangaroos galore and remarkably friendly people concerned about what America’s current course means for their country.

[Continue Reading]

February 16, 2025

Ten Positive Points About American Democracy and What the World Can Teach Us

Some Thoughts on Vipers, Strongmen, Patience and Small Steps

What must she be thinking…

We can’t view the news these days without finding fuel for despair. Nonetheless, I’d like to draw on my nearly forty years of advising on foreign aid for democracy, the rule of law and human rights around the world to offer ten positive points about American democracy in these troubled times.

These thoughts are not predictions. I see all sorts of reasons to see a dark future. But I don’t see how giving up does us any good.

1. We’re comparatively fortunate. Yes, really. As I sketch below, foreign societies burdened by poverty, poor education, repression and histories far worse than ours have overcome more daunting circumstances to launch, protect or restore democracy. If they can overcome, so can we.

[Continue Reading]
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About A Promised Land

A Promised Land explores the enduring grind of U.S. politics, fresh takes on policy debates and the long-term promise of viewing America as a developing country. Its perspective partly flows from Stephen Golub’s many years of international development work with leading aid agencies, foundations, policy institutes and advocacy groups.

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