US politics: worse than I expected
Mar. 23rd, 2025 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcBefore WWI we had Pax Britannica, after WWII we had Pax Americana, apparently until now: clearly, the US can no longer be trusted in that role. I am glad to see Europeans trying to scramble to plug the gaps on this side against Russia, I wonder if we could see some similar alliance in Asia against China's territorial ambitions? I am perhaps more right-wing than many friends, I am glad to see some reversal of the deep cuts in defence spending here, though in a competently run industrialized country I think we should be able to spend on defence and look after, house and feed everybody to at least a basic level. From where Britain is now there's some catching up to do, like the US we seem bad at learning that if you treat and help everybody well then you get to get more tax back from them instead of their travails costing the state more. Policy failings in health, education, welfare take as long to reverse as the costs arising from underinvestment in infrastructure. We can spend less on defence when the world is full of liberal democracies but we sure ain't anywhere near that yet.
I keep finding myself outside the US when Trump is in power, I feel bad not being able to help more given my privileged status as a white straight male US citizen but I have to look after my family and the US is not the place for brown-skinned non-Christian immigrants. Since principled senior officials elsewhere in government seem to find themselves either resigning or being forced out, the judiciary seems to be about the best remaining bulwark and it's not like they command much of an army. We'll see how the Supreme Court rules on some coming conflicts and to what extent the executive even has to care. Though, while the administration runs the playbook already executed by Erdoğan, Orbán, etc., perhaps I can also draw hope from that Trump is failing to please his base in some ways: if he were competent enough to manage their cost of living issues then the situation would be even more dire. Still, rather than defending the Constitution, remaining Republican officeholders seem to be taking the tack of keeping quiet in the hope of the leopards eating other people's faces instead.
I keep finding myself outside the US when Trump is in power, I feel bad not being able to help more given my privileged status as a white straight male US citizen but I have to look after my family and the US is not the place for brown-skinned non-Christian immigrants. Since principled senior officials elsewhere in government seem to find themselves either resigning or being forced out, the judiciary seems to be about the best remaining bulwark and it's not like they command much of an army. We'll see how the Supreme Court rules on some coming conflicts and to what extent the executive even has to care. Though, while the administration runs the playbook already executed by Erdoğan, Orbán, etc., perhaps I can also draw hope from that Trump is failing to please his base in some ways: if he were competent enough to manage their cost of living issues then the situation would be even more dire. Still, rather than defending the Constitution, remaining Republican officeholders seem to be taking the tack of keeping quiet in the hope of the leopards eating other people's faces instead.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-23 07:05 pm (UTC)Years back, there was a tax amendment introduced to Congress. Incredibly byzantine. No one could figure out who the tax break would benefit. Finally a financial magazine took some analysts and had them sit down and work it over. The entire bill benefited ONE person: H. Ross Perot. I have no idea if it passed.