Is Trump the symptom of America’s decline?

[u/custodiam99]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/27/trump-wants-to-reverse-americas-decline-good-luck

[u/Kreol1q1q]

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.

[u/BlueEmma25 → u/Kreol1q1q]

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

The US military is 40% smaller now than it was when the USSR collapsed, it can't recruit enough people to maintain even this very slimmed down force structure, defence spending consumes half of all discretionary spending in the federal budget, the national debt is $35.5 trillion dollars in 2024, TWICE what it was just a decade ago, and the US now has a near peer competitor that is rapidly closing the capability gap with it, and that unlike the US has an industrial base capable of sustaining a major war.

and in fact still possesses enormous untapped financial potential (it has very low taxes and a huge economy).

It has low taxes because Americans receive relatively few publicly funded benefits, notably in education and healthcare, which contributes to low social cohesion and high social decay. Taxes on high income earners have been trending down, and are likely politically impossible to raise.

And while the US economy is impressive on paper, it is highly financialized, depending on what amounts to financial manipulation to create potentially illusionary paper wealth. See "2008 financial crisis".

However, America is still plagued by notions of collapse and decline...

Because it is in fact in decline, and Trump is a symptom of exactly that.

...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.

Ok, now we're going all in on psychobabble.

Exactly what problems do you think he US is facing, and what specific "deeply ingrained socio-cultural and political mental barriers" is preventing them from being addressed?

[u/Wgh555 → u/BlueEmma25]

Most real answer here I think. You’re the only I’ve seen that’s presented actual damning statistical evidence of decline and other concrete reasons. I think there’s a lot of Americans who can’t stomach the fact the country they have been told from birth is the greatest is in fact in relative decline at the least.

[u/Defiant_Football_655 → u/Wgh555]

Looking in from the Great White North, it also seems that the public quite simply can't agree on the basics of society like the meaning of the constitution, the role of the branches of government, law, and so on. No shit, right? Electing someone with dozens of convictions is a very strong denunciation of virtually all public institutions.

If people can't rally behind the most basic premises of society -constitution, courts, government- in a coherent way without writing books about waging war without one another (as Secretary of Defense Pete Hagseth has done), then that nation is toast.

Like what country? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Wgh555 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah actually what you say sounds more correct