Beginnings of America’s decline?
The happenings in the United States of America since Trump assumed the presidency have been more disturbing than what I had cited in my February column. After unjustly pardoning/appointing his supporters and allies and firing all his opponents in government, he has withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Human Rights Council. He also threatened to withdraw from the International Court of Justice and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), then voted with Russia on the UN resolution on the Ukraine war. He is also abolishing many Federal agencies like the USAID, the Dept. of Education and downsizing many departments while terminating tens of thousands of employees.
After declaring to make Canada a state of the U.S.A., acquiring Greenland and the GAZA, he is now imposing tariffs on products from China, Canada, Mexico and other countries that exports heavily to the U.S. These will disrupt the global supply chain and start a trade war among countries. These will lead to higher prices in the U.S. and other countries affected, and will be economically and socially disastrous. Many of Trumps executive orders are illegal and unconstitutional and are now being challenged in the Courts.
While there were many Empires that rose and fell in the course of history, the most written are the Roman Empire and the British Empire. There are also many reasons for the rise and fall of these empires, that some of them are both causes and effects. Economic disparity, corruption and abuses are always there, before and after the fall, but leadership failure is the major and proximate component. The power struggles in Rome got worse when the army generals wanted unchecked powers and eroded the democratic processes. In the case of Great Britain, which once boasted that the sun never sets on the British Empire as it had colonies all over the world, the overpowering ego of the Prime Ministers and parliament that did not want representations and democracies for the colonies, made the colonies revolt and gain independence. They could have hang on longer to America and India, if the democratic ideals in England were also in the colonies.
The rise of the U.S. as an empire had less to do with geographic expansion, as it even gave up their colonies like the Philippines, some Caribbean islands and island territories. The American influence was due to its free enterprise economic system that propelled its economy, and the promotion of truth and justice in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The rapid rise of the U.S. economy especially after the WW II, with egalitarian bias that created the large middle class, made people in other countries aspire for the American dream. These were also supported by the fast paced advances of technologies in the fields of engineering, medicine, and all sciences in a wide democratic environment.
Trump’s government is upending many of the factors for the rise of the U.S. empire. Creating a trade and economic war defeats the comparative advantage economic principle, abandoning allies and coalitions forgoes cooperation, and undemocratic initiatives zaps creativity in science and technology. Trump and his government’s behavior and actions have lost them the moral leadership and ascendancy necessary to make the U.S.A. stay as a modern empire based on ideology, morality and technology, rather than geography.
The orderly progress and advancement of the world, individual nations and societies require powerful empires as ideals that other countries follow and emulate. The U.S.A. was the polar for the democratic countries in half of the world, while Russia was the polar of the autocratic countries. With the possible decline of the American empire, China will emerge as the new Empire with its free enterprise economic system and an autocratic government.
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