I have always been interested in how American politics had degenerated to the current state of facts doesn’t matter and it’s us against them mentality. We see a total distrust of the political system and media leading to the widespread belief in conspiracy theories and the “trust no one” mindset.
This led America down the path of Trumpism and divided the nation into the current fractious “us versus them” fight for power. Each side is so embedded with its idealogy that anything the other side champions has to be brought down regardless of whether it is for the good of the majority or not. The rest of the world looking into America wonders how it has gone to this state as it becomes the laughing stock of democracy going mad.
I have always been a fan of the insightful writings of Kishore Mahbubani and this has been reinforced with the reading of his 2020 book “Has China won?”. He has also started to appear more often on my TikTok feed as some of his speeches to Western audiences argue with simple facts on how the world is underestimating China and not giving it the due respect of a rising superpower. He also advises the US on what he sees as wrong from an outsider’s point of view and provides possible solutions.
“This open-access book consists of essays written by Kishore Mahbubani to explore the challenges and dilemmas faced by the West and Asia in an increasingly interdependent world village and intensifying geopolitical competition.
The contents cover four parts: Part One – The End of the Era of Western Domination. The major strategic error that the West is now making is to refuse to accept this reality. The West needs to learn how to act strategically in a world where they are no longer the number 1.
Part Two – The Return of Asia. From the years 1 to 1820, the largest economies in the world were Asian. After 1820 and the rise of the West, however, great Asian civilizations like China and India were dominated and humiliated. The twenty-first century will see the return of Asia to the centre of the world stage.
Part Three – The Peaceful Rise of China. The shift in the balance of power to the East has been most pronounced in the rise of China. While this rise has been peaceful, many in the West have responded with considerable concern over the influence China will have on the world order.
Part Four – Globalization, Multilateralism and Cooperation. Many of the world’s pressing issues, such as COVID-19 and climate change, are global issues and will require global cooperation to deal with. In short, human beings now live in a global village. States must work with each other, and we need a world order that enables and facilitates cooperation in our global village.”
He often used the term Plutocracy to explain the reason behind the current state of American politics. Plutocracy is a state governed by the wealthy for the rich that ignores most of its citizens’ wishes. The bottom 50% had grown to distrust the government as the rich got richer with special tax cuts while they had been ignored and seen a decline in their living standards. They do not trust whatever mainstream media is telling, calling truths alternate facts and rebelling against anything that the other side may say.
Kishore cited the Jan 2010 Supreme Court “Citizen’s United” decision to allow unlimited campaign spending to ensure the election of candidates sensitive to the donor’s interest as a major turning point to turbocharge plutocracy into American politics. Corporations with much bigger pockets can overwhelm individual voters to command decisive victories of elected officials to do their bidding and favour the company’s financial agenda. Take, for example, the gun lobby and pharmaceutical companies. They overrule the majority’s wishes for gun control and lower medical prices.
This in turn has led to a despair of hopelessness and feeling that the common people are screwed over yet again by the elites. Enter Trump to stir up their emotions to form a strong voter base of the disenfranchised. They will follow him to the end of the earth, regardless of the lies he feeds them.
The American 2-party system has made the situation worse by pitching us against them, an attitude of always trying to oppose whatever the other side is trying to do. The whole population suffers as nothing gets done even when bipartisan support for bills is achieved. Everyone is fighting to make the other side look bad as a main objective.
The upcoming Nov presidential elections will deepen this wide divide even further. Kishore argues that the first basic action to resolve must be to recognize that plutocracy exists in American politics. But no politician has the guts to openly admit this because it will be political suicide. They can only continue to play the game till its bitter end.
This is a sad situation that is unravelling a superpower nation from within. We outsiders are watching the decline of America. It is like watching a soap opera drama with a predictable end result. Can America come out of this? We all hope so but the probability looks slim. Ballooning deficits spent on the rich and newer military conflicts with zero plans for infrastructure development (zero new roads/bridges, no high-speed rail system or new airports)… The signs are all there of a decaying society bent on self-destruction.
Leave a Reply