American Suicide

[Celerity]

Mere months into his term, Trump wrecks global trade, abandons allies, empowers rivals, pushing America towards collapse.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/american-suicide



It has been only two and a half months since Donald Trump returned to the White House, but the world has already fundamentally changed. Trump is rapidly undermining US trade relations and the global system of free trade that the United States helped establish after 1945. His bid to “liberate” the US economy with escalating tariffs represents an essential change from the more modest trade-war tactics deployed during his first term. According to the Yale Budget Lab, the average US tariff rate is now at its highest level since 1909.

Trump is also casting doubt on America’s longstanding alliances, not least NATO and the security guarantees that it represents. In late February, he publicly humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, then showed the Ukrainian president the door. Since then, US support for Ukraine has effectively ended, giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a stronger hand than he has had in years. Trump has made no effort to hide the fact that his sympathies lie with Russia, the aggressor, rather than with Ukraine, the beleaguered democracy that has been fighting for its freedom and sovereignty.

Trump has also suggested that the US should take control of Gaza, expel its population to other Arab states, and turn the enclave into a resort. And he continues to talk about annexing Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. Apparently, it is not enough for the US to control most of the Western Hemisphere; Trump wants to own it, too. While everyone expected turmoil, few anticipated brazen imperialism. Pundits and commentators have long interpreted “America First” as a revival of the isolationist movement that was active before World War II, but Trump seems to have something else in mind.

He wants a world where a handful of global superpowers compete – violently if necessary – for resources, raw materials, and spheres of influence. On the home front, he has allowed the world’s richest man, Elon Musk – the vanguard leader of a Silicon Valley-based techno-fascist movement – to gut the American state under the guise of cost-cutting, elimination of waste and fraud, and deregulation. The mass firings and demolition of entire agencies will have lasting consequences, which are painful to consider. The gutting of USAID alone may result in hundreds of thousands of deaths in Africa and other vulnerable regions of the world.

snip

[Kid Berwyn]

1. Outstanding analysis and summation.

From Herr Fischer:

After all, the US gains nothing from hostility toward Europe. By alienating its allies, it is destroying one of the main pillars of its superpower status. For decades, “the West” – an unrivaled geopolitical framework of military alliances and trade relationships – served as a force multiplier for US power and influence. It is why America handily won the Cold War and grew stronger than any power in history. Who benefits from throwing all that away? Only Russia and China, which have been quietly watching and waiting as America commits suicide.

We can already say that there will be no return to the previous international order. Trump has destroyed trust in the US for at least a generation. American commitments are no longer credible. The country’s institutions – including major media outlets, universities, and law firms – are crumbling before our eyes. The US will still enjoy a unique geographical position between the Atlantic and the Pacific, but the rest of the world will know that Trumpism has become an enduring feature of its politics.

The disappearance of “the West” and the collapse of American leadership (and democracy) will dramatically alter world politics in the twenty-first century. Order will give way to chaos, and the risk of war will increase as rival superpowers jockey for position. American society itself will remain polarized, consumed by irrationalism, and prone to conspiracy theories.

In his 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis imagines the rise of a dictator to mirror the Fascist and Nazi regimes in Europe. Now, 90 years later, his dystopia is materializing. Like Goethe following the Battle of Valmy in 1792, when the Prussian army retreated before the French revolutionary forces, we are witnessing the start of a new era in world history. The pain, hardship, and injustice will get only worse from here.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[sop]

3. Great essay.

"Trump’s policies, both foreign and domestic, increasingly seem to be geared toward weakening America, or even toward its self-destruction." I cannot understand why so many in the Republican party are allowing this to happen.

[GiqueCee]

13. As I've said before...

... Republicans are all in for the total destruction of democracy; they've always hated the very concept, and now they don't have to hide it anymore. When Putin's puppet is through blowing up the country that let him get richer than he ever deserved to be, they want to rule over the ashes of whatever's left.

[Irish_Dem]

16. The GOP is done with democracy. It no longer serves their purposes.

Their goal is permanent total power and control.
And access to all US assets and resources.

[sop]

17. "If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism.

They will reject democracy.” ― David Frum

[Irish_Dem]

20. Exactly. This is where we are now.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Yeah, but I wish we would stop calling them

"conservatives." They are dangerous radicals. Nothing conservative about them.

[NNadir]

4. It certainly does represent a suicide.

It is suicide for the stupidest reasons.

[LastDemocratInSC]

21. Krasnov had a dysfunctional childhood.

His older sister cared for him when his parents couldn't or wouldn't. His mother had health issues and his father was an authoritarian. He didn't get the attention and love that all children crave and need. He seems to resent that many people are happy and content and can achieve things beyond his abilities. His solution (my speculation) is to destroy the things that empower those he resents in an attempt to drag them, and the rest of us, down to his level of misery.

It's a sad commentary on our nation that so many lack the judgement required to ensure that we have sane, reasonable and stable political leadership.

[NNadir]

22. I actually don't care how he became a psychopath or any...

...other aspect of his psychopathology.

What matters is that our country is sick enough to place such a weak and flawed criminal where he is.

[mdbl]

5. So how long is America going to allow this?

It's not patriotic to let a handful of people kill your society.

[Stuckinthebush]

7. As long as the GOP has complete control

I don't see what we can do other than point out the truth. And get congress back ASAP.

[birdographer]

8. Nicely put n/t

[Irish_Dem]

18. It is not just a handful.

Half the US congress, the court system, the Supreme Court, the media.
And the billionaires and CEOs.

We are outnumbered.

[H2O Man]

28. Wait!

I agreed with everything you said until your last sentence. I think Jim Morrison was correct when he sang, "They've got the guns, we've got the numbers. Gonna win -- yeah, we're taking over."

[Tansy_Gold]

19. Until the blue states have had enough

The Constitution was written to enable chattel slavery. The "founding fathers" needed to protect their wealth.

The Civil War was fought over it, and the "blue" states won, but they still wanted to preserve the marriage the Union, so they capitulated to the (former) slave states once again.

There's a map going around that shows California's 2 senators compared to the 46 senators representing other states with the same population. The senate is the "upper" house, the more powerful body of the legislature. There is no breaking the senate's stranglehold, because even if Democrats get legislation passed in the lower house, the fascists can filibuster and block it or change it at a later date.

We are still under the thumb of the slave states and their white christian male supremacy ideology. "Kick out the brown people! Don't let women vote! Put their children to work (while ours sit on their asses and play video games). Starve the poor! Let the disabled die!"

This has been their plan all along. It was their plan 250 years ago, and they're fighting to keep it.

I'm not in a blue state, and at my age it's not likely I ever will be. But for my children and grandchildren, this is a toxic, abusive marriage that needs to end in divorce if anyone is to survive.

[Mysterian]

25. Bingo!

Fundamental flaws in our constitution (electoral college, undemocratic apportionment of senators) eventually doomed the republic. The only way I see to get out of this mess is for the eligible people who did not vote to see the error of their ways, get involved, and get on our side to end republican control forever.

[Tansy_Gold]

29. Unless that Democratic victory is sufficient to

amend the Constitution, the threat will always be there. Red states will never vote themselves out of power by approving amendments to change the Senate and or eliminate the Electoral College. We essentially have minority rule in this country, and that's not likely to change if the system itself doesn't change.

[Mysterian]

30. That's what I'm talking about

A paradigm shift. Normally it requires a major catastrophe like the Civil War.

[LastDemocratInSC]

6. Krasnov is stomping on the sand castles the other kids made at the beach.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. But it's really murder/suicide, because half of us are collateral damage!

[malaise]

10. Must read

Rec

[mountain grammy]

11. Well said.. he puts it out there.

amazing how many Americans approve.

[dalton99a]

12. It is suicide.

[IronLionZion]

14. Comrade got his supporters to poison themselves during COVID

so he's a real stable genius for sure, kind of like Rasputin. Why anybody still believes his lies is beyond me. But that's half of America apparently.

[IbogaProject]

15. Murder is the word

The wealthy are so renoved from us and by what I can tell hopped up on enabling drugs like Xanex that they pushed us to here. They lost the idea they need consumers for their investments and are blinded by short term next quarter thinking. The entire top 2%, and their international ilk who Bernie rants about are to blame. We shouldn't let them off and just go after their fall guys like Trump or their CEOs.

[yellow dahlia]

23. Thanks for sharing.

Devastating truths, but great writing.

[Initech]

24. All to please stupid fucking morons like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity and Charlie Kirk.

Don't listen to that shit. It is poison for your mind.

[HorsesflyHigh]

26. I fear what our future holds.