One of the possible outcomes here is civil war, potentially followed by balkanization of the US. Or, the beginning of a fascist regime here, utterly divorced in all meaningful ways from our (deeply flawed, but still somewhat democratic) current system, with simmering insurgency that will stretch on for decades. Or, some fragments of our government regain enough sanity and backbone to actually fight back against the fascists. Or any number of other insane scenarios that would have gotten you laughed out of the room as recently as 9 years ago (or, in some deeply oblivious circles, 2 months ago).
But one thing’s for damn sure: Pax Americana is done. I genuinely do not see how US foreign policy and soft power bounces back from this. We no longer lead the free world in any meaningful sense (that’s not a jingoistic reminiscence - it’s commentary that any shred of credibility we had on that front is entirely gone now).
I mean… possibly.
One of the possible outcomes here is civil war, potentially followed by balkanization of the US. Or, the beginning of a fascist regime here, utterly divorced in all meaningful ways from our (deeply flawed, but still somewhat democratic) current system, with simmering insurgency that will stretch on for decades. Or, some fragments of our government regain enough sanity and backbone to actually fight back against the fascists. Or any number of other insane scenarios that would have gotten you laughed out of the room as recently as 9 years ago (or, in some deeply oblivious circles, 2 months ago).
But one thing’s for damn sure: Pax Americana is done. I genuinely do not see how US foreign policy and soft power bounces back from this. We no longer lead the free world in any meaningful sense (that’s not a jingoistic reminiscence - it’s commentary that any shred of credibility we had on that front is entirely gone now).