Why Trump Remains a Threat To The American Empire
One of the interesting things about the last decade is how much the reality of the world has been revealed and how the illusions have failed. This is especially true with the NeoCons.
One can look back at the days of the Cold War and find two strong blocs in competition. The West claimed to be about freedom and claimed the Communist bloc was about tyranny. Meanwhile, the US often had client states that were controlled by tyrants and brutally repressed their own citizens. Likewise, the US often resisted Third-World liberation movements, which often had Soviet support. Additionally, there was a disconnect between American claims of freedom and the repression of some groups at home.
Domestically, there were left-wing critics of American hegemony. My bookshelves are full of powerful books written by these critics, most of whom are now forgotten, especially after the end of the Cold War.
There were not as many right-wing critics, as most had been co-opted into the great anti-Communist crusade. If anything, many extreme right-wing critics claimed the US was not fighting strong enough against International Communism and that the US government was influenced and controlled by Communists.
There some who opposed the global US presence in the name of fighting Communism. Senator Robert Taft fought the Truman administration and attempted to keep US troops and money at home, instead of being sent to support a worldwide empire. He lost the 1952 Republican nomination to Ike and his position of returning America to just focusing on America soon disappeared.
There were also right-wing critics of the intervention into Vietnam.
Overall though, by Reagan, most conservatives supported his efforts to win the Cold War and roll back communism, and so did a lot of conservative Democrats. Mostly leftists objected to these efforts and found fault with Reagan’s efforts.
A remarkable thing happened with the end of the Cold War: right-wing criticism of the continued American empire came back to life. Lots of folks didn't want the US to be the world’s policeman/hegemon. The chief individual to raise this on the right was Pat Buchanan.
Pat came from that Senator Taft traditional conservative position. Pat rejected the idea of the American empire and forcefully argued to let the empire end with the Cold War. He also supported a more populist and nationalist and even blue-collar version of the Republican Party. His Buchanan Brigades briefly put a scare into GHWB.
One very odd thing about the end of the Cold War is that a lot of people had studied and focused on a career in a bipolar world. Of course, it is easier, especially for midwits, to think in “you are for me or against me terms”. A multipolar system was outside of their understanding.
Meanwhile I saw the end of the Cold War as a return to a mutipolar system. I focused my M.A. studies on diplomacy in early Modern Europe (1500-1750), a period of great flux and shifting alliances, with the goal of using that focus to help explain what I thought was a multipolar future.
As I read the theorists in those early days of the post-Cold War era, I was surprised at how many seemed lost and confused. They wanted to extend the unipolar moment. And they did for decades.
Fast-forward to Trump, he didn't accept the idea that we should continue the American empire and instead wanted a world of state sovereignty. He wanted to stop having client-states and instead have friends. Trump’s efforts in North Korea, the Middle East, and with Russia threatened long-standing plans.
Trump was never a Putin stooge, but Trump did share a common view of the world. Trump was and is a direct threat to the American empire because Trump puts America first over the empire.
One of thing that was evident from Trump’s first impeachment trial was that many US diplomats were not really Americans or cared about America. They supported the empire, not the country. They support their homelands not America. Trump will always put America first and so he will remain a threat.