The Republican’s second presidential term heralds a more inward-looking US where resentment has replaced idealism and nobody wins without someone else losing

After one Trump presidency and on the eve of another, it is now clear that a once mighty global superpower is allowing its gaze to turn inward, to feed off resentment more than idealism, to think smaller.

Public sentiment – not just the political class – feels threatened by the flow of migrants once regarded as the country’s lifeblood. Global trade, once an article of faith for free marketeers and architects of the postwar Pax Americana, is now a cancer eating away at US prosperity – its own foreign invasion.

Military alliances and foreign policy no longer command the cross-party consensus of the cold war era, when politics could be relied upon to “stop at the water’s edge”, in the famous formulation of the Truman-era senator Arthur Vandenberg.

Now the politics don’t stop at all, for any reason. And alliances are for chumps.

  • @[email protected]
    10•3 days ago

    Everyone reading this right now should recognize that America will be on a steady decline for the rest of our lives.

    There’s no point in waiting for it to improve. There’s no point in waiting for it to fall.

    Just accept that it is a trend that will not end while we are still living. Don’t waste your life waiting for the day that never comes.

    • @thisorthatorwhatever
      7•3 days ago

      Could have settled into a northern Europe socialist type country. Good social safety net, good labor laws. Instead the country is going the way of petty, central American, dictatorships.

      • @[email protected]
        6•3 days ago

        That would be nice.

        Americans have proven that they don’t want anything that reduces the disparity in wealth, though.

        That’s why democrats nominated Hillary Clinton instead of Bernie Sanders in 2016, resulting in a Trump presidency. I also think that if Trump didn’t win in 2016, he wouldn’t have had a better chance in 2020 or 2024. So I actually blame 2 Trump presidencies on the people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democrat Primary.

    • Todd Bonzalez
      5•3 days ago

      What this person is asking you to do is roll over and accept defeat. To embrace the fall into Fascism without a fight.

      Don’t listen to people like this. America declines because we let it decline. Fight like hell for a better world, please.

      • @[email protected]
        3•3 days ago

        That’s not at all what I’m suggesting and this isn’t specific to fascism.

        Greed and unchecked entitlement is what made America what it is today. As long as people can’t see past their own wealth, these problems will continue to perpetuate. This generation is proud to take advantage of others and envies those who get rich off of exploitation.

        Framing it as a culture war instead of a class war helps contribute to the steady decline of America.

        Edit: The fact that you immediately jumped to ‘fascism’ instead of ‘greed’ or the growing disparity in wealth further proves my point that these problems will not be solved in our lifetime. We’re not even looking in the right direction at this point.

        • @nomous
          3•3 days ago

          When the boot is placed on your neck you have two options: smile and start licking, or punch that fucker in the balls as hard as you can.