Credit: Brandon Bell / AP
Nearly 14 years ago, on Dec. 5, 2010, a historian writing for TomDispatch made a prediction that may yet prove prescient. Rejecting the consensus of that moment that U.S. global hegemony would persist to 2040 or 2050, he argued that “the demise of the United States as the global superpower could come … in 2025, just 15 years from now.”
To make that forecast, the historian conducted what he called “a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends.” Starting with the global context, he argued that, “faced with a fading superpower,” China, India, Iran and Russia would all start to “provocatively challenge U.S. dominion over the oceans, space and cyberspace.” At home in the United States, domestic divisions would “widen into violent clashes and divisive debates. … Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation […]
Well I have to say that its an interesting article that dances around very salient issues that got us here in the first place. As the article states:
“While Rome was riven by “internecine strife” and Britain ran its empire on a shoestring budget, the United States was “constitutionally stable” with “an enormous industrial base.” Taking a few “relatively simple steps,” he concluded, Washington should be able to overcome current budgetary problems and perpetuate its global power indefinitely.”
Does anyone believe that the greedy rapacious elites would take any steps to preserve United States standing? I certainly didn’t believe it then and don’t believe it now. Let’s look at a few points the author dances around:
1) A corrupt two part system which is entrenched and refuses to listen to any idea of reform that is proposed by the population. This entrenched system is designed to bolster itself at the expense of all other viewpoints.
2) The capture of the economy by the banks and hedge funds promoting rent seeking, mergers, and stock buybacks fueling an economy that concentrates wealth and which produces little in productive value.
3) Capture of foreign policy by neo-cons who for decades have been drunk on power wanting to impose their version of capitalism on others through the use of force whether it be by overt military means or the use of sanctions. Establishing over 128 bases in the United States alone and 750 military bases world wide in 80 countries. This activity consumes the labor of hundreds of thousands of Americans who could contribute productively here in the United States while the system enriches corporate sub-contractors. This foreign policy has been a disaster propping up dictators and undermining democratic movements world wide.
4) The betrayal of the capitalist class shipping middle class jobs overseas while suppressing union activity at every turn. This precipitates unemployment and desperation for all except the educated “work from home” class. That’s how the Chinese got the 4 trillion dollars to start the belt and road initiative.
5) The on-going participation in military alliances where the American taxpayer is effectively subsidizing the welfare states of Europe whose citizens enjoy things ( e.g. vacations, education support, travel, union representations, parental leave) that American’s can only dream of. I should add that this is true of South Korea as well.
I could go on and on with this list, but you get the message. This article is designed to provide softened information for the elite to consume which doesn’t directed cause them to look in the mirror regarding their own actions. Trump is the symptom of a corrupt system, not the cause. If we had a functioning judicial system he would have been fined out of business or jailed years ago. We don’t have a functioning judicial system, or the perpetrators of the 2008 economic crash would have been jailed years ago.
Want a different outcome? Then you have to change the structure. Think outside the box.