End Of Empire

Here are questions and answers from Andrew Bacevich:

Looking back on the nation’s recent past, baffled Americans are left to ponder two questions: how could this have happened? And what can we do to escape from the terrible straits in which we find ourselves?

A partial answer to the first question is this: for too long, ruling elites allowed the purported obligations of global leadership to take precedence over tending to the collective wellbeing of the American people. This was a conscious choice made by leaders of both political parties. We are now living with the consequences of that choice, with the persistence of racism offering just one example of what neglect has produced. Yet it deserves to be emphasized: the neglect was not Trump’s doing; he was merely its ironic beneficiary. We are its victims.

A preliminary answer to the second question must begin with this admission: the era of US dominion has now passed. So Americans can no longer afford to indulge in the fiction of their indispensability, cherished in elite circles. In fact, the sun has set on the American empire. Subordinating the wellbeing of the American people to ostensible imperatives of global leadership - thereby allowing racism, inequality, and other problems to fester at home - has become intolerable.

A massive reordering of national priorities is required. It goes without saying that Trump is incapable of presiding over any such reordering. Yet whether anyone else in mainstream politics is capable of doing so remains very much an open question.

You can read the rest @
https://spectator.us/end-american-empire-dominion/

I agree, in that Trump is the perfect patsy. That's probably the chief reason he was allowed to win.

I believe we will in fact be "beneficiaries" of the global great reset. Whether it includes a massive reordering of national priorities in the manner suggested by Bacevich is anyone's guess. I'm betting it will focus on enslavement of the US population to the further benefit of the powers that be.

Here is more discussion of the underlying issues:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/america-image-power-trump/613228/