American decline

[Prefatory Note: The following post was published in slightly modified form in COUNTERPUNCH on July 15, 2022. It attempts to connect my despair about developments In America with wider global systemic tendencies. It is not hopeful about the future, yet  Its central message is that we should continue to struggle for a future we can believe […]

The Democrats are corrupt enough, but the Republicans are on another planet entirely-- or at least in another culture, a culture of corruption. It's no wonder Trump thinks he can get away with giving the Russians a tacit green light to pay bounties on American soldiers stationed overseas.

There was a postwar order, but was it liberal?  Like most political orders, it looked much better on paper than it did in practice and to the core members of the order than those on the margins...