âAmerica is backâ became President Joe Bidenâs refrain on his European trip this month, and in a narrow sense it is. We no longer have a White House aide desperately searching for a fire alarm to interrupt a president as he humiliates our country at an international news conference, as happened in 2018. And a Pew Research Center survey found that 75% of those polled in a dozen countries expressed âconfidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing,â compared with 17% a year ago. Yet in a larger sense, America is not back. In terms of our well-being at home and competitiveness abroad, the blunt truth is that America is lagging. In some respects, we are sliding toward mediocrity.