The Fall of the Yankees: Why It Is Uncool to be American Now

President Ronald Reagan in 1982. Photo courtesy of Michael Evans. 

Disclosing American nationality abroad is often met with a mixture of negative emotions. Upon having the displeasure of learning that a tourist comes from the United States, other nationalities may strike Americans with a look of pity—either condescending or sympathetic. They might even go so far as to advise them to escape America as soon as they can given pitfalls such as the country’s crumbling healthcare system and democracy. In recent times, Americans may have found themselves agreeing with these sentiments. To be American is to feel lesser, embarrassed, or “uncool.” Many Americans who have traveled abroad come to idolize European lifestyles and even immigrate to other countries after experiencing more secure and viable sociopolitical and economic systems, becoming expats to escape American life. This begs the question—why is it now “uncool” to be American? The answer stems from President Ronald Reagan’s neoliberal administration and its ramifications, including the political polarization we struggle with today. The world is rapidly realizing that unfettered American capitalist domination of global culture is unacceptable.

The United States has historically attracted millions of immigrants and other individuals searching for opportunities since the 19th century. Currently, the country is home to the greatest number of foreign-born residents in the world, totaling 50.6 million people. Ostensibly, what drew these people to the United States were the political, economic, and social benefits promised by the American Dream. In America, the Constitution offers a substantial amount of freedom to its citizens relative to other countries under martial or religious law, appealing to the thousands of refugees forced to leave their war-torn homelands to escape persecution. Economic security also abounds in the United States, as evidenced by its growing GDP per capita, seeming promising to those fleeing from countries ravaged by poverty and economic failure. Moreover, the United States provides ample social mobility for its residents, attracting millions of people who are unsatisfied with the rigid and oppressive social norms of their home countries, such as the many Middle Eastern and North African immigrants discontented with the lasting influence of Islamist gender conventions. However, since the peak of American “coolness” in Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980s, one integral aspect of the American image has changed: the world has realized that the American Dream is a farce. 

Ronald Reagan’s presidency and its subsequent fallout cemented the neoliberal veneer through which most people view the United States today. As a staunch anti-communist and a former actor possessing an existing rapport with the American people through his big screen appearances, Reagan entered the American political stage in the 1960s with a reinvigorating air of Americanness. That is, he presented an image voters could associate with patriotism, traditional values, and Christianity. Since the 1960s, celebrity and prior recognition, regardless of origin, have proven to be an effective tool in garnering support and mobilizing voter bases for political campaigns, most recently in the case of Donald Trump. With Reagan’s celebrity having already helped him establish an amicable image, amid such political debacles as the Vietnam War and Watergate, over the next two decades, Americans became disillusioned with the status quo and looked to new leaders who would bring the country out of a shameful era. They immediately turned to Reagan who they believed could be trusted because of his fame. Reagan offered the opportunity to reshape the American image from one defined by corruption, scheming, and failure to one of idealism—even exceptionalism. He achieved this feat during his presidency by ramping up American production and establishing the country as the wealthiest capitalist nation of its time. 

Ronald Reagan’s policies stood to make the United States the world’s dominant power. Reaganomics fortified the U.S. military and primed the country for global business expansion. This economic standard laid the foundation for modern neoliberalism, which prioritizes tax cuts for the rich and military spending, a lucrative endeavor for the United States, over funding for domestic welfare projects. Profits were intended to trickle down from the elite and upper class to the lower class. Reagan’s pandering to evangelical voters gave him religious legitimacy as president and led to a resurgence of Christian values across the country. Economic globalization made the United States a household name via the expansion of American brands around the world. The United States was as “cool” as ever because its powerhouse economy forcefully plowed its way into every market. Because the United States had conquered the global economy, being American was the golden standard. 

However, things were different on an individual level. Fueled by consumerism, the U.S. economy and culture dominated the world stage, but because of the unprecedented growth of global capitalism, it also fostered a significant wealth divide between classes. In order to financially maintain U.S. foreign interests, Reagan’s administration indirectly supported drug sales to fund U.S.-backed militias fighting abroad. Counterintuitively, African Americans received the brunt of this scandal, marking the beginning of the modern prison-industrial complex and heightened discrimination against African Americans for drug crimes. Income inequality reached unparalleled levels as the middle class shrunk and the richest Americans became a smaller share of the population than ever. Although neoliberalism revived the U.S. economy and bolstered its global standing, it did so at the expense of its most disadvantaged people. 

The international community has begun to look beyond the guise of success the United States hides behind. Compared to 1985, a year during which 69% of Americans were satisfied with the state of affairs in the United States—one of the highest satisfaction rates in the last 42 years—only 17% of Americans said the same in October 2022. As of 2018, many European citizens from countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany—all which place greater focus on domestic welfare and economic collectivism than the U.S.—have held largely unfavorable views of the United States. Even under the current Biden administration—which began with much higher approval ratings than Biden’s predecessor President Donald Trump left with—Europeans are still very pessimistic about Biden’s ability to match European levels of social security. The American Dream is now a last resort for people desperately fleeing violence, war, and persecution because it has proven to be a false reality. Americans and immigrants from around the world now find themselves increasingly looking to countries with stronger social safety nets to forge better futures. At the political and economic levels, it is definitively “uncool” to be American right now, and because globalization has connected world cultures under capitalism, this sociopolitical disgrace has translated into a cultural one.
The fall of the Yankees is upon us—in fact, it has been for years. The United States was once considered a cultural touchstone, an ideal to be strived for by “lesser” countries. However, in a new era of harrowing economic disparity in the country, Americans find themselves falling behind in their political evolution compared to the rest of the West. Now, we are criticized by other nations for our social and political failures because the world has realized that a culture defined by capitalism and exploitation is not nearly ideal relative to what their countries have to offer. No country is perfect. Even some of the countries with the best social infrastructure trade their gains for losses. Still, the very least Americans can do is acknowledge that their country is, indeed, “uncool.” America is no longer a sociopolitical utopia propped up by unbridled capitalism, but a dystopia kept on life support by it, at least through the lens of those who have been able to view the United States from an outside political perspective.

Alexia Vayeos (CC ’25) is a second-year at Columbia College and a Staff Writer for CPR who plans to study history. She is interested in 20th-century U.S. history and politics, U.S. foreign policy, and the history of leftism.