03/01/2025
There was a time when Great Brittan was the undisputed “lead country” in the world. France and Spain were its rivals; its only rivals. There was a time when the US of A was the undisputed lead country in the world; that was after WW2. Russia, first, and China, later, emerged as its rivals.
Great Brittan’s (the United Kingdom’s) tenure as “great” lasted – about 400 years, from the late 1500s to the early 1900s. After a slow decline in the 1900s, the UK’s global influence took a hard hit at WW1 and ended after WW2. The US’s tenure as “great” probably began in the late 1800s, and peaked after WW2 (after all, it was just about the only nation with any measurable industrial capacity left). It remained “great” until Ronald Reagan - who outspent the Russians causing the USSR’s collapse. China was still trying to figure out how to feed its people and grow its economy. By the late 1980s - a mere 100 years from the late 1880s - the US had reached its peak. Since then there has been a steady, until now rapid, decline. (( It’s like the Hemingway described going bankrupt, slowly at first - then all at once. )) Trump is the tipping point.
Henceforth, I expect the world at large will make its plans – economic, political, all-encompassing – with the US as a mere consideration, but not an influencer. The purchasing power of the average US citizen has been weakening for decades and will only decline further. The US will become a lesser trading partner (China will strike preferential deals for itself, and Russia - with an economy the size of Texas’ doesn’t matter as a trading partner; it can’t afford to buy anything and has no export but oil (and that goes to the EU).
Removing Trump – today – wouldn’t change anything, at least not for several generations. The seeds of internal discontent were planted long ago, he is merely the fruit of the poisoned tree. We as a nation need to go to therapy and figure out how to heal our internal turmoil before we can go back to the adult table.
So, I say again, the US *is* a ‘has been’ country. We just don’t know it yet. (But the rest of the world does.) What is left to see is if we become a sh*t-hole country. And Trump and cronies are doing their best to make that happen; notwithstanding the aim of Making America Great Again. (Seems like maybe they do know the US isn't so "great" after all...)
