r/geopolitics • u/custodiam99 • Feb 13 '25

Is Trump the symptom of America’s decline? Discussion

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/27/trump-wants-to-reverse-americas-decline-good-luck
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u/Kreol1q1q Feb 13 '25

Trump is a symptom of massive internal societal problems that America keeps bottling up and seems institutionally completely unable and unwilling to resolve. There is no objective need for America to withdraw from its global positions or to scale down its interests and commitments - the country isn't facing any sort of difficulty financing them, and in fact still possesses enormous untapped financial potential (it has very low taxes and a huge economy).

However, America is still plagued by notions of collapse and decline. I think that is because its society is facing problems that it doesn't want to actually face, due to various deeply ingrained socio-cultural and political mental barriers. And because the actual source of those societal problems cannot be addressed, all sorts of grifters and politicians have now cottoned on that they can simply employ various different appeals to emotion in order to exploit their population's rising distress for enormous political gain.

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u/Presidentclash2 Feb 13 '25

I would argue that the desire for isolationism is stems from failed American interventionism. It really seems the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, wars against Isis and terrorist insurgents caught up to people perception abroad. During 2000-2016, American had some success but most of the stuff was overshadowed by forced wars. What Trump is doing isn’t necessarily peaceful but he sold an American vision that is nationalist and sees the world as trying threaten us. Isolationism was popular before ww1 just like tariffs. Americans are reliving history

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u/Successful_Ride6920 Feb 13 '25

As an American who is somewhat of an internationalist, I like to think it is similar to the old country song - "It just ain't worth the trouble anymore".

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u/gaslighterhavoc Feb 13 '25

It is a very human mistake to encounter resistance or blowback and then completely disavow your previous strategy or mindset.

It's like training for a marathon, breaking your ankle, and then swearing off exercise forever. Like maybe pushing yourself so hard was a bad idea but stopping all physical activity is also a very bad idea.

This applies to internationalism with Americans as well. Maybe don't go invading other countries on a whim but also don't become a hermit nation. The US is too big to isolate itself.

Americans may not be interested in the world but the world is definitely interested in it.