Every pundit in the world is making comment on the success of The Donald in the US Presidential election. So, I thought I would add my two-bob’s worth.
Most sentient beings in the world are aghast at the possibility of a misogynistic, narcissistic, xenophobe with delusions of grandeur having his hands on the trigger which could end the world as we know it!
Me too! I’m scared that he will align himself with his Russian equivalent, who is a misogynistic, narcissistic, xenophobe with delusions of grandeur also, and between them poke the dozing Chinese dragon.
But before I go there, one of the most interesting facets of this election is the overwhelming proof that the ordinary voter has been governed by “the establishment” ever since Eisenhower (for those who don’t know was a five-star general in WWII and a dinky die war hero as opposed to a professional politician). Every President since then has been engaged in politics most of their lives either as a Governor of a state or a member of Congress. Clearly, most voters have opted for change.
Trump presented himself as a self-made billionaire businessman and not a politician. The voters were fooled into thinking that he was not a politician. Rubbish! We all know that being a “politician” in business is prerequisite for success.
As an aside, cop the similarity between Clive Palmer and Donald Trump. Hot air, extreme language, flaunted wealth and delusions of being the closest thing to God you can imagine. And… they will save the world and make [insert whatever here] great again.
We saw many empires come and go during our history lessons at school. Persian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Ottoman, Japanese, Russian, British and now the American Empire.
Globally, Putin is trying to bring back a Russian Empire and we’ll see how this plays out. All of those mentioned above came about and were sustained militarily and disappeared when societal and political decline set in. The new Chinese empire is based on an economic takeover of territory through alliances (for the moment) and they are creating an economic dependence of their neighbours prior to the predictable acquisition of territory.
Their forays in the 20th century into Vietnam and Tibet, one repulsed and the other surrendered, show that the military option is just not being deployed for the moment but it stands ready to be so. The furore over the South China Sea is the most recent indication of territorial expansion by the Chinese in total ignorance of international law. The same is said of Russia in relation to the Ukraine.
The US of course has a history of being everybody’s big brother and protector and a simple glance at the chaos in the Middle East will see the folly in this approach and the obvious mistakes which keep being repeated (and Australia blindly follows as in the case of Vietnam of the 1960s).
But now you can see that the US is being largely ignored by the two superpowers, Russia and China. It was the most powerful nation in the world but I’m not sure anymore.
One thing is certain though. Trump’s infatuation with Putin will mean a closer alliance between those two nations. Trump makes the mistake of trusting the Russian bear. They are not in the same league. Russia will rise in prominence and the US will decline further. China will rise further and come through a gap when the relationship between Russia and the US ends in tears.
Trump has said that he will review the relationship the US has with Asia both economically and militarily. He has said that he won’t necessarily back NATO in its campaigns. In some cases, this may seem reasonable but it is flawed on two bases.
The first is the notion of collective security. One can’t pick and choose which campaign to be involved in when in a collective which says that nations bind together to defend each other in times of crisis. One is either in or out. In Australia’s case, most people want us to be in a collective, like ANZUS, but I’m not convinced. NZ pulled out and so should we.
Someone said that the US and Australia are much alike and are only divided by a common language. Amusing but true because we have copied so much of the American way of life.
Whether Trump likes it or not, his country has coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and across these ditches lie either friend or foe. The US is too big to be neutral in any conflict affecting either ocean. Trump can’t have it both ways.
However, if President Trump wants to change or cancel the alliance with Australia, I’m in. I would like this large but little nation to adopt the stance of New Zealand. We should stay out of other people’s conflicts and remember that in times of threat to Australia, other nations will come to the fore because of their own self-interests. We don’t need to attract the enemies of the US to our shores. We don’t need to invite unnecessary attention to our military insignificance.
This US election is stark proof of the need for compulsory voting. The US has the President it voted for and will pay a penalty for having the Republican Party control the Congress and the White House. Trump et al will not be able to say, “it was rigged”. They will not be able to say, it’s not our fault. We have Republican behemoth running the US. Let’s see if they stay united or self-destruct.
I’m hoping that as with Clive Palmer, Donald Trump is a one term wonder and that during the next four years, the global tensions are not exacerbated and sleeping giants not awoken.
We live in interesting times. Scary times. Dangerous times.
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