By Kerri L
America has always seen itself as the one country that can oversee all the others. The one righteous superpower.
Self-appointed police, judge, jury, negotiator, charitable rescuer, military equaliser, reconstruction expert, appointer of foreign governments, arbiter of world trade etc etc etc.
The world has, somewhat begrudgingly, accepted the US’s domination and control. The US has used this to their advantage placing themselves first in line for any form of profiteering from the misfortune of others by causing wars, and then charging the victims to reconstruct the country the US destroyed in the process.
America has, for decades, pretended this is not their ultimate goal.
Except now, under the vacuous Trump all of this is laid bare.
Unashamedly, transactional Trump wants to get more than the US gives.
His infantile understanding of foreign trade has him demanding an equalisation of trade deficits. He thinks any country that exports more to the US than they import from the US is cheating the US and must be made to pay for it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of that hemisphere, China is providing much needed infrastructure to poorer countries, and regardless of whether they ultimately repay China or not, China has done those countries a favour and has, deservedly, won their respect. This soft diplomacy is well beyond the purview of any US government, let alone Trump’s.
Might is always right.
Trump does not seek or want respect. He simply wants power and profit.
His perpetual insecurity sees him lashing out in revenge and stomping down hard on anyone who might even think of challenging his supremacy. His notion of success is owning more than anyone else and doing so by fooling them into a “deal” that nakedly benefits himself. He cannot hide this. He must boast.
He is the playground bully. Writ large. His diplomacy is brutally self-interested and equally dismissive of anyone he can easily walk over. He has surrounded himself, not just with sycophants, but also with like-minded demagogues who all see themselves as the next big thing. It remains to be seen whether they will eat each other in their naked thirst for power and greed for attention and personal wealth.
When Trump, and his acolytes, speak of “making America rich again” they really mean making themselves even more rich. Forever.
Every “deal” Trump does must have some element of kickback to his private wealth. The US political and legal systems are largely based on the notion that Americans are inherently good people and would only ever elect equally good people to run the country. The gaping holes in the US constitution are now revealing the ugly side of the governmental structure.
The executive, being President along with cabinet and Vice President have equal powers to the other two branches: Congress and the Judiciary (which is currently stacked with fellow snouts in the trough). The President has his executive orders whereby he can make the law and his cabinet is stacked with brown-tongued lackeys.
But aside from all this, Trump, and Musk, are still breaking the law left right and centre. The MAGA crowd will love it until it hits them in the hip pocket. The law-abiding US citizenry will protest and complain but no one will do anything to get in the way of “the most powerful man on earth”.
The USA is cooked, and you cannot help but feel sorry for those citizens who see what is happening with the clarity of not being in a cult. Those well-meaning souls who chose not to vote in the last election because of their country’s stance on Gaza have in fact consigned Gaza to inevitable annihilation.
A protest vote is definitely a thing worth pursuing but it needs to be well weighed up against the alternative before actioning.
In the case of the last US election…
“The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.”
In any case that’s my personal opinion.
That and the opinion that Australians should weigh up protest voting before the next election.
Sometimes there is no good choice.
But there is always the lesser of two evils.
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This sums up my feelings very well, and those of friends who live in the US.
I do believe however that our democracy is much more robust for a number of reasons, amongst which that every adult is expected to register to vote and to actually do so.
No, this does not prevent the “protest vote” which of course we have the right to post.
In addition most of our legal system is in some way insulated from what goes on in Canberra, so is relatively immune from idiocy like what is happening over there.