The charitable interpretation of what just happened in Singapore is that a naive and desperate-for-a-win Donald Trump got played by a shrewd Kim Jong Un. The facts do not support a more optimistic take than that. But I think that interpretation is far too narrow and far too optimistic. What I think we are actually witnessing is the further emergence of a new center of gravity of political power which has shifted away from an alliance of western governments and toward an alliance of Beijing, Moscow, and a host of dictators, kleptocrats, and plutocrats from around the world. The common interest that unites them, for the time being, is a mutual desire to be able to do whatever the fuck they want within there spheres of influence.
I was struck by the gratitude Trump expressed for being granted a tête-à-tête with Kim:
"I feel really great," Trump told reporters. "We're going to have a great discussion and I think tremendous success. We're going to be tremendously successful, and it's my honor, and we will have a terrific relationship."
I’m not sure it has sunk in to most American citizen’s just how humiliating it is to have a U.S. President speak that way about the likes of Kim Jong Un. And that was only Trump expressing aloud what has been obvious from his behavior from the moment the South Korean delegate presented him with Kim’s letter. Trump has been embarrassingly eager to accept the fig leaf that Kim has extended to him — the opportunity to put on a dumb show of a summit in order to ratify a new deal for North Korea brokered by Russia and China.
The truly sad thing is that the U.S. is clearly a junior partner in our corrupt new world order — less than a junior partner, really, more like a flunky.
The leaders of our new world order are obviously Russia and China. The junior partners are Turkey, Israel, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, other billionaires. and Donald Trump, in his personal capacity.
The United States itself is being thoroughly exploited and forced to act against its own interests. Our inherited wealth as a nation is being dissipated at an alarming rate. We are still nominally the world’s super power, but only at the sufferance of Russia and China. It’s as though Lex Luthor had seized control of Superman’s will.
In hindsight our vulnerability is obvious. Right wing billionaires who resent any legal restraint on their actions have built a political doomsday device, the components of which were initially well-funded organs of propaganda, a near bottomless pool of campaign contributions, perquisites for compliant politicians, and hyper-funded dirty tricks campaigns. For a few decades these were the weapons upon which the right-wing billionaires relied for their influence. But, increasingly, the influence of these billionaires is being felt more through the fruits of their influence as much or more than their direct influence.
Today, we are contending with a host of corrupt election laws all designed to favor Republicans over whom the right-wing billionaires exercise near complete control, and those laws are being reviewed and interpreted by state and federal judiciaries that are riddled with thoroughly indoctrinated right-wing ideologues.
Through these means, the right-wing billionaires, led by the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson have seized control of the Republican Party, and, with the billionaire’s assistance, the Republican Party has seized control of much of the political and legal power in the United States.
However, these corrupt billionaires, with their insatiable hunger for wealth and power are themselves vulnerable to cooption by corrupt national leaders with power and wealth at their disposal sufficient that they can make or break these right-wing billionaires.
And thus we find ourselves being led around like a hyper-atrophied bull by a ring through our nose.
The insidious thing is that it is in the interest of Russia and China, for now, to see to it that the visible signs of national decline for the U.S. are kept to a minimum. The United States could, theoretically shake off its bonds, clean its political house, and resume its role as leader of a set of alliances that have provided unprecedented global stability since World War II. But in the absence of some serious shock to the system, it seems unlikely that we will awaken from our trance and take back control.
I am truly worried that the Republicans and their political masters will have enough tricks up their sleeves to stave off what should be a massive Democratic backlash.
Hillary Clinton, under the ordinary rules of politics, should have cleaned Trump’s clock in 2016. She should have won by more than Obama won in 2008. And she should have had a Democratic Senate too. But the forces behind the Republican Party engineered enough dirty tricks for Trump to win a bare plurality in enough states to elect Trump, and for the Republicans to hold on to the Senate.
For the Democrats to take back a bare majority in either the House or Senate, it will take a Democratic tidal wave of truly massive proportions. Fortunately, Democrats are fighting back in a quite concerted way that may overwhelm the barricades built against it.
I really think this November may be the last best chance we have to preserve what is best about the America I grew up in and to begin to undo some of the things that have been wrong with the America I grew up in.
I fear that if Democrats lose this November, that Donald Trump will rapidly consolidate his control over the Republican Party and our government to an extent that will leave us nostalgic for the halcyon day’s of 2017 and 2018, when we still had a healthy system of checks and balances.
While I think it’s important to focus on pocketbook issues and the like, I also think it is essential that Democrats have a strong, coherent message on the existential stakes of this election.