Many have cited Thucydides statement “the strong do as they will, the weak do as they must” to explain Trump’s approach to the world. But that missed the great Greek historian’s real point.
You write, "what happens when the United States abandons the global leadership role"
Not sure why people keep saying this. Trump just displayed bold leadership in Europe, and by doing so accomplished a long standing American policy goal that no previous president had been able attain, Europe taking responsibility for it's own defense. Trump is now opening a dialog with Iran. He's trying to broker a peace in Ukraine, though we agree that's not likely to succeed. He's bombed the Houthis to keep sea lanes open. He's taken decisive action in regards to US/China trade.
One can reasonably argue with any of these Trump moves. But we can't say that Trump has abandoned global leadership.
What I see happening is that we Democrats have become so hopelessly distracted by Trump's ugly personality that we have lost the ability to be at all objective about his policies. That's not going to serve us well, as it makes the Democratic Party look like just another flavor of MAGA madness.
You write, "Trump has taken this Athenian hubris and made it his own—by claiming America will “get” Greenlands, “take” the Panama Canal, and make Canada its “51st state.”
Trump also claims that Rosie O'Donnell is fat and Obama is not a real American, and about a hundred other headlining grabbing stunts.
You write, "The biggest threat it faces is not a rising China, however. It is “the degradation of our own polity and of our own alliances” that constitutes the greatest threat today."
Our alliances will remain in tact for the same reason they existed in the first place, it's in the interests of all parties to be part of the alliance.
We seem to have completely forgotten that we've already seen this movie. During the first Trump administration tensions were high with our European friends, and then Biden got elected and fixed it. That will happen again, because the political pendulum in America has been reliably swinging back and forth for over a century. And when we Dems take office the next time the new reality we will inherit is that Europe will be strong instead of weak, a real ally, instead of just a dependent.
America has been through a lot worse than Trump and come out the other side intact. My fellow Democrats should dig deeper and find more confidence in the nation they've been so lucky to inherit. The constant gloom and doom loser defeatism now so popular is an extremely poor political strategy and will cost us dearly if we don't cut it the @#%#$@ out. People don't vote for sad losers, they vote for confident optimistic leaders.
Thank you for this. P.S. it was Sparta’s fear of the rising power of Athens. And I would add, Persia bribed the Spartans to launch the Peloponnesian war. America invites the insidious influence of malign powers.
You write, "what happens when the United States abandons the global leadership role"
Not sure why people keep saying this. Trump just displayed bold leadership in Europe, and by doing so accomplished a long standing American policy goal that no previous president had been able attain, Europe taking responsibility for it's own defense. Trump is now opening a dialog with Iran. He's trying to broker a peace in Ukraine, though we agree that's not likely to succeed. He's bombed the Houthis to keep sea lanes open. He's taken decisive action in regards to US/China trade.
One can reasonably argue with any of these Trump moves. But we can't say that Trump has abandoned global leadership.
What I see happening is that we Democrats have become so hopelessly distracted by Trump's ugly personality that we have lost the ability to be at all objective about his policies. That's not going to serve us well, as it makes the Democratic Party look like just another flavor of MAGA madness.
Yeah, and so do the Democrats. They want power and will watch the world burn to get it.
Our country works best when the left and right work together to get things done.
That's what we had when we had our own manufacturing.
That's what we lost when we outsourced it to China.
That's what we need to get back.
You write, "Trump has taken this Athenian hubris and made it his own—by claiming America will “get” Greenlands, “take” the Panama Canal, and make Canada its “51st state.”
Trump also claims that Rosie O'Donnell is fat and Obama is not a real American, and about a hundred other headlining grabbing stunts.
You write, "The biggest threat it faces is not a rising China, however. It is “the degradation of our own polity and of our own alliances” that constitutes the greatest threat today."
Our alliances will remain in tact for the same reason they existed in the first place, it's in the interests of all parties to be part of the alliance.
We seem to have completely forgotten that we've already seen this movie. During the first Trump administration tensions were high with our European friends, and then Biden got elected and fixed it. That will happen again, because the political pendulum in America has been reliably swinging back and forth for over a century. And when we Dems take office the next time the new reality we will inherit is that Europe will be strong instead of weak, a real ally, instead of just a dependent.
America has been through a lot worse than Trump and come out the other side intact. My fellow Democrats should dig deeper and find more confidence in the nation they've been so lucky to inherit. The constant gloom and doom loser defeatism now so popular is an extremely poor political strategy and will cost us dearly if we don't cut it the @#%#$@ out. People don't vote for sad losers, they vote for confident optimistic leaders.
Thank you for this. P.S. it was Sparta’s fear of the rising power of Athens. And I would add, Persia bribed the Spartans to launch the Peloponnesian war. America invites the insidious influence of malign powers.