Trump shortens the path !
Al-Nour Hamad
The world is on the cusp of a major global transformation, one that defies all expectations that prevailed with the end of the Cold War and the rise of a unipolar world (unipolarity). We are currently faced with a turning point where global affairs are in turbulence, ideologies are collapsing, and faith in many long-accustomed assumptions is being tested, on the verge of becoming rigid dogmas.
At the forefront of these assumptions is that economic progress, development, and the achievement of social justice are all inextricably linked to democratic systems. The features of this pivotal moment in contemporary history have been evident since the beginning of this century, the first quarter of which has now passed by in the blink of an eye.
Amongst the most prominent features of this historical moment is the apparent decline of the American empire and the emergence of signs of its departure from the hegemonic position it has held since the beginning of the twentieth century, especially following the end of World War II.
This global decline is a reflection of internal erosion that has been steadily increasing. American global hegemony currently appears to be on the verge of contraction and decline, just as the British Empire’s hegemony shrank and declined in the twentieth century.
The Inevitability of American Decline
There is no doubt that America’s apparent retreat from the hegemonic position it has held for nearly a century is inevitable, imposed by the exhaustion of creative energies of Western modernity that have sustained it -in the aforementioned position- for the past three centuries. The driving force that emerged with the dawn of modernity and maintained Western centrality in its position of military, economic, intellectual, and cultural hegemony on a global scale, with America as the greatest embodiment of its pillars, has begun to wane. This is a natural process, part of the natural process that governs the universe and its galaxies, nature and its elements: be it gases, liquids, inanimate objects, and living organisms.
The entirety of existence; The visible and the invisible, the known and the unknown, go through stages similar to that of life, in regards to humans, animals, and plants, these life stages are: childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age, old age, and then death.
Death, as we are discussing the decline of American civilization, doesn’t necessarily mean its complete demise, but rather vacating the seat and losing hold of the reins it has long held for another rising entity. Human existence on Earth is still, as a whole, on an upward trajectory, despite apparent setbacks in details, here and there. On this path, nations and civilizations exchange leadership positions and reins. And it seems that China has now begun to seize both.
America, no longer possesses any means to halt this decline, because the factors behind its trajectory are inherently embedded in its structure. These factors have already taken their toll, leading to what appears to be the beginning of the final chapter. This is expressed by the notion that anything, bears within itself the seeds of its own demise. All indications point to China advancing toward a dominant position, bringing with it many emerging nations that have begun to rally around the latter, linking their fates to China’s, adopting its economic and development model, in which, the Military Force isn’t an aggressor but a protector.
These emerging nations have long complained, for a century, about American hegemony and its deliberate obstruction of the stability, growth, and progress of their nations. They have also been pointing out America’s addiction to setting fires across the globe to serve its vast military-industrial complex, which dominates American decision-making and is based on imposing a narrow, occidental vision that views gain as solely at the expense of others.
The Test of Faith in Democracy
What further confuses concepts and undermines the beliefs prevalent during the Cold War era is that democracy, which was promoted as an indispensable condition for achieving development, progress, and prosperity, ultimately proved, particularly in the American model, to be nothing more than a tool to protect the greed and avarice of the wealthy. This led to the accumulation of wealth in the coffers of a few billionaires, which -in turn- weakened the role of the State in serving the general public, leading to a decline in development rates, and a steady regression of social Justice’s jurisdiction, exponentially. All of the above demonstrated, in the final analysis, that the democratic system was, in practice, little more than a tool for deception, to numb the masses, facilitating the control of everything by billionaires.
Thus, the force behind the argument that many have long repeated, namely, that democracy adjusts its own course, has been weakened, or rather evaporated. Now, at a time when China’s infrastructure, technology, and industry are growing at a geometric rate, we find that all of these aspects are declining in America at a remarkable rate. America’s infrastructure has aged and deteriorated, and the State’s role in protecting growth, innovation, and the public interest has long diminished. Industries have fled America, leaving it only producing in limited sectors.
On the other side of the planet, the Chinese Communist Party, with its totalitarianism, has embraced the market economy, achieving astonishing development leaps, transforming China into the world’s factory and bringing a quarter of China’s population into the middle class in just a few decades. All indications suggest that this astonishing leap will place China at the forefront of every new, innovative action, very soon, and that China will create a new international bloc and a parallel global financial system, which will soon bring down the curtain on the current Western paradigm of governance with all its components.
Trump is America’s Yeltsin
Just as everything carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, the American civilization produced the current President, Donald Trump, to hammer the final nail in the coffin of American hegemony. He was preceded in this path by Boris Yeltsin, who dismantled the Soviet Union overnight. Both men sprang from the seeds of destruction that were inherent in the structure of their respective nations.
Its rather noteworthy that when China abandoned communism, it rose, while the Soviet Union was dwarfed, disintegrated, and fell out of the circle of influential powers in regards to global events. The American elites, who created a driven, profit-oriented civilization, put forth efforts into granting the capital a free hand. They also used the media to confuse the people, distract them from a sound understanding of public affairs, and domesticate them by drowning them in the swamp of consumerism.
Capitalism thus claimed the lion’s share of the country’s wealth, while the public remained mired in the swamp of old-fashioned serfdom, albeit in a deceptively shiny modern guise. Due to the deliberate efforts to keep the public ignorant, practiced by the media owned by the wealthy, the allied stakeholders; public understanding declined, and the stage was set for a populist leader who appealed to primal instincts.
Hence, Trump came along and won two elections, separated by four years, during which power returned to the Democratic Party. However, President Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, failed to secure another four years for the Democratic Party in office. Donald Trump returned to power again, despite the legal convictions surrounding him and the massive media efforts to assassinate his character. All these efforts failed to erode his popularity, and he ascended to power once again, chosen by the people.
This triumphant return whetted his appetite to move from his control of America to economic control of the entire planet, based on false assumptions prompted by his extreme ignorance, narcissism, and recklessness. Donald Trump came to power with his own aides and proceeded to launch an economic war against the entire world through extremely high tariffs, that included even his neighbors in Canada and Mexico. Many, including Richard Wolff, a well-known Marxist economist and university professor, believe that America will not survive this crisis brought about by Donald Trump.
The American empire was on the verge of decline, and its decline could have continued for a long time. However, its dysfunctional structure brought a man like Donald Trump to power, who has -significantly- shortened the path for Americans to realize that their democracy is a sham and has consistently worked against what it preached. Additionally, Trump will shorten the path for the rest of the world to escape this crippling American hegemony. In doing so, Trump will do to America what Yeltsin did to the Soviet Union
