IF YOU FOLLOW US politics then you’d know that the US Congress had recently impeached US President Trump. That sounds really bad for the guy, until you realize that the whole thing happened along partisan lines. Democrats control the US House, and they overwhelmingly voted to impeach Trump. Meanwhile, the Republicans control the Senate, and they are not about to piss off their many Trump-supporting voters.
In other words, Trump’s not going away… at least not in the foreseeable future.
However, this whole debacle is not really about the President. Trump’s presidency is actually a proxy battle between ‘Red’ America (rural, conservative and European-descended) and ‘Blue’ America (urban, liberal and non-European/post-1965 immigrant); between the historic American nation (loosely defined) and the institutions of Pax Americana.
Since 2016, both sides have escalated their battle against one another, and I think it’s probably going to get worse in 2020’s. Why? Because of the United States’ role as the core component of Pax Americana. It is the country that sustains the global liberal world order; it is the consumer of last resort for the global economy; and it is the prime destination for the world’s excess population/savings. Without the United States, global trade, security and institutions will fall apart.
And it’s already falling apart. The Americans can feel this, I think.
The historic American nation hates Pax Americana because they bear most of its costs. Their ‘America First’ mantra is an expression of their dissatisfaction and frustrations. They don’t like their country’s role in the world, and most of them Republicans/Trump voters.
At the other side are the factions of Pax Americana, the large multinational corporations, migrants, special interest groups and transnational types who are dependent on a ‘globalized’ United States, and they tend to be Democrats.
Trump represents an attack on Pax Americana, which explains why the Democrat-controlled Congress hates him. But as I’ve written elsewhere, Pax Americana is dying, if not already dead. The world is changing and the old order established after the Second World War is fading into the dustbin of history.
Those who are personally invested on Pax Americana would like nothing more than to oust Trump and disenfranchise his voters, but what they don’t realize is that their real enemy is Time. All things must end; good and bad; peace and war. ‘This too shall pass.’
The age of American Peace is ending, and impeaching Donald Trump won’t change that. (jdr456@gmail.com/PN)
