( Tomdispatch.com ) – He’s the man of the hour (and you can choose your hour), win, lose, or draw. I mean, who can deny it? Certainly not the crowd at his debate with Kamala Harris that, as he reminded us recently, absolutely “went crazy” over what he had to say. (And it couldn’t matter less that the event had no live audience whatsoever.) In a sense, he isn’t wrong. After all, it’s still all too possible that, in a couple of weeks, he could once again be elected — yes! — president of the United States.
Indeed, it’s as yet unclear whether American voters will decline The Donald, but what is increasingly clear — there can’t be a doubt on the subject — is that he himself is on the decline in a typically wild and mad sort of way. And yet he might indeed still be elected to lead (even if that hardly seems the right word anymore) this country. And what exactly does that tell us about this all-American world of ours?
All too much, I fear. Above all, that it’s increasingly anything but all-American.
Can you believe that only 30-plus years ago, after the Soviet Union collapsed, this country, the very one Donald Trump might once again preside over, was considered (at least in Washington) the “lone superpower” on planet Earth? And in some sense, it actually was. After all, the great European imperial powers were ancient history by then, the Russians in a state of post-Cold War devastation, and Communist China had yet to truly begin its rise. But like all great imperial powers, it should now be far clearer that, in the wake of a seemingly endless series of lost wars abroad, its global “moment” has long been ending. Its ability to command or direct the world now seems largely a thing of the past. There can be little question any more that the (increasingly dis-)United States is an imperial power on the decline.
Make America Grotesque Again?
Don’t misunderstand me. This country remains all too powerful when it comes to its military and nuclear forces. Just check out the latest Pentagon budget or the more than 40,000 American military personnel, battleships, aircraft carriers, jet fighter planes, and who knows what else deployed to a Middle East that Israel is now blowing sky-high. But if you want a measurement of just how far the Lone Superpower has fallen, keep in mind that, once upon a time not so terribly long ago, an Israeli leader like Benjamin Netanyahu would never have dared to pay so little attention to the desires of Washington when it came to his actions in the Middle East. Once upon a time, a figure like Netanyahu couldn’t have ignored the wishes of the top officials of the very country still arming his own in a staggering fashion, while doing whatever he damn well pleased to tear his region to shreds.
Consider him visible evidence that this country is indeed no longer the world’s lone superpower (and not just because of the rise of China either). Yes, the Pentagon budget remains a staggering (and still increasing) affair, but something has certainly changed. Consider it anything but symbolic (though it is that, too) that 81-year-old Joe Biden is by far the oldest president in American history. (Ronald Reagan left office at age 77.) Worse yet, should Donald Trump win re-election this November and last until the end of his term, he would set a new record and leave Biden in the aging dust of history.
While it no longer even occurs to observers to use a phrase like “lone superpower” when it comes to the United States, it still seems that, in a deeper sense, the reality of this country’s imperial decline has yet to be fully taken in here, even by those who no longer see it as the operative great power on Planet Earth. In truth, it’s not just that it has lost much of its grandeur and influence abroad but that, though this is seldom mentioned in such a context, it’s visibly coming apart at the seams right here at home and that should, of course, be a significant part of any definition of imperial decline. As it happens, such a decline of a major global power will always prove anything but a distant foreign affair.
Even if it’s not normally thought about or written about that way, it is, in fact, happening right here, right now, in these increasingly dis-United States of America in a distinctly up close and personal fashion. At this point, you can, in fact, see evidence of it almost any time you turn on the news. In some sense, it couldn’t be more graphic or literal. After all, former president Donald Trump, once again running for president, is, symbolically speaking, declining before our very eyes as he rants and verbally stumbles in a distinctly declinist fashion, even if to the cheers of striking numbers of his MAGA fans and followers. (By the way, in light of recent history, isn’t it perhaps time to redefine MAGA as Make America Grotesque Again?)
And yes, in these years of imperial decline, Donald Trump has gotten (whether positively or negatively) almost unprecedented attention here at home. Sometimes, in fact, it seems as if he (and he alone) is the news. But here’s the truly strange thing: he, the MAGA movement, and Election 2024 are seldom seen for what (at least in part) they really are. He, that MAGA phenomenon, and the 20 million — yes, 20 million! — military-style AR-15 automatic rifles (the best-selling rifle in America) now in private hands — mainly the mitts of those who are White, male, between the ages of 40 and 65, and have accompanied him into this version of America — actually represent the truest sign of imperial decline imaginable in the place its leaders still like to think of as the greatest on Planet Earth.
Yes, Donald Trump is living, breathing evidence that this country is none too slowly coming apart at the seams. I mean, when in our history could you count on the fact that, if one candidate for president loses the upcoming election, he (and yes, it distinctly is a he) will undoubtedly claim that it’s been stolen from him and that he actually won? And his followers, significant numbers of them armed to the teeth, will agree with him and do who knows what (but nothing good). And of course, were he instead to win, four years later you can count on one thing: in some sense, this country is likely to be politically unrecognizable. If you don’t believe me, just check out the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to get a sense of the direction that a whole crew of his former officials and other Trumpian types think it should head. In other words, the United States is not just going down as a global power but potentially, in some fashion, beginning to disintegrate domestically as well, even possibly as a democracy. And if that isn’t both the functional and the literal definition of “decline,” what is?
Let me just say that, if I could bring my parents back from the (long) dead and tell them the fantastic story of Donald Trump and how he became president or, for that matter, how the Supreme Court, led by six right-wing (including three Trump-appointed) justices, essentially immunized a significant range of his illegal acts in office by granting him “presumptive immunity” for them, I guarantee you they wouldn’t have believed such a thing possible. Nor would they have believed that a “businessman,” without the slightest political background, who survived multiple (and I do mean multiple) bankruptcies and was best known for hosting a reality (or perhaps irreality) TV show, The Apprentice, for 14 seasons that tested the supposed business skills of its contestants, could become president of the United States.
Trump’s very victory in 2016 should, in other words, have instantly been seen as the functional definition of American imperial decline — a crucial sign of the weakening and potential collapse of this country’s position in the world translated into domestic politics. And an election victory this November could, in the end, mean both the figurative and literal bankruptcy of the American system, while his defeat, in a nation now armed to the teeth, could give chaos a new name in the imperial homeland.
In other words, whether Donald Trump wins or loses Election 2024, this country is in trouble deep and, four years from now, its situation could be almost unimaginable. It could be run by a degenerating 82-year-old madman or, even with Kamala Harris in the White House, a country in an ever more deeply divided and increasingly violent state of mind. It will not be, as it proudly proclaimed itself once upon a distant time, “the leader of the free world,” nor is it likely to be a fully functional global superpower (though what chaos or devastating violence its “fall” could bring the world, including future conflicts with China, remains hard to imagine).
Chill, Baby, Chill?
And let’s not forget that, in some sense, that may be the least of our problems. After all, as we’ve experienced all too recently with hurricanes Helene and Milton, whatever devastation may lie ahead socially and politically for this country, another kind of devastation is fast becoming a distinct (and distinctive) part of everyday life, here and in the world at large. Whether we’re talking about increasingly powerful storms or ever more devastating fires and floods, we’re on a planet that’s heading for trouble in a big-time fashion.
The fact is that we all now live on a different Earth, one that’s clearly going to experience devastating weather of every imaginable sort. Climate change, in other words, is truly our new reality and it’s clear that the devastation has only begun.
As ever more homelands on this planet become ever less livable and ever greater numbers of us begin wandering in search of places to inhabit — yes, Donald, climate change is indeed creating a previously inconceivable world of “illegal immigrants”! — imagine the once greatest power on planet Earth with a president who still insists that global warming is a “hoax.” Imagine a president on this very planet right now who plans, above all else, to “drill, baby, drill” from his first day back in the White House — and that’s in the nation that’s already the world’s record producer of oil and natural gas.
That should, of course, be the definition of creating a dysfunctional country on an increasingly dysfunctional planet, one where the old imperial dreams of so many “great powers” will have ever less meaning.
Yes, the Middle East is now in ever greater chaos as the Biden administration’s support for Netanyahu only continues, even as he draws even more of the region into disastrous conflict, while hardly bothering to consult with Washington’s top officials. Still, count on one thing: the chaos you see out there now is, in its own eerie fashion, already coming home to roost and if Donald Trump ends up back in the White House, believe me, we’ll need another term entirely than “lone superpower” to describe this country.
Might the planet’s “great stupid power” work?
And mind you, despite the rise of China, it still remains an open question, whether there can be another lone superpower of any sort or even a truly great power on a planet all too literally going to hell in a (flaming) handbasket, one whose land surface and ocean temperatures have already hit record levels with far worse to come.
You might almost imagine that climate change had grasped the withering global power of the United States and decided to act accordingly. In some fashion, we now seem to be on a post-imperial planet in which — if only — the best approach would be: chill, baby, chill.
Copyright 2024 Tom Engelhardt
Via Tomdispatch.com