The other side of the coin

IMAGO, Alexander Shcherbak, Donald Trump im Oval Office

On the nature of American politics

It is said that Donald Trump is implementing a fundamental change in American politics. This thesis is substantiated with regard to relations with Europe by keywords such as trade war, the increasing responsibility of European states to provide for their own defense, and the general demand to increase defense budgets (it should be noted here that the latter two aspects are already a contradiction in terms). In general, the demonization of Donald Trump prevails in Germany over the glorification of the Democrats, who are sold as fighters for freedom and democracy. There are good reasons to believe that this will continue to be the case, and it is important to clarify the real reasons behind it.

I would like it to be simple.

Yes, that would be nice.

But the time for that is over. And it won't come back.

---

The assumption that being far-sighted allows one to

should not prevent us from

sharpening one's short-sightedness in order to

benefit from closer observation.

If we take a closer look, we come to the question of whether all this is not rather just the outward expression of American politics—the surface that, if we base our own actions solely on it, can lead us to false conclusions, wrong decisions, and disadvantages. Must we not delve into the nature of American politics, its essence—and thus into the nature of democracy? Escaping both dazzlement and blindness gives us hope of arriving at a comprehensive picture of the situation: as a prerequisite for a sustainable solution to a multitude of problems.

The essence also has effects that can be used to penetrate it, and in my view there are two that make it possible to understand American politics: social division in the US and foreign policy. When Joe Biden warns in his farewell speech that "Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America, extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threaten our entire democracy," he is casting a veil over reality, but he is also giving historians the opportunity to create a legacy for him that will ensure he is remembered fondly.

Humanly speaking, this is perfectly legitimate, but the warning conflicts with the facts that this development has been going on for a long time and that he has contributed to its further deepening and its significant influence on American politics during his presidency. It may be that among Democrats and Republicans, one or the other dominates to a greater or lesser extent, but the oligarchs have been determining American politics since time immemorial. One need only think of John D. Rockefeller, look at the list of the world's richest people from the perspective of their influence, where nine of the top ten come from the US, or remember that between 1948 and 2008 there were only two US presidential elections in which the names Kennedy, Bush, Nixon, or Clinton did not appear on the ballot.  The number of super-rich people and their wealth, dominated by the US, has risen rapidly during the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden: the latter has more than doubled. During Joe Biden's time in office, the wealth of the five richest people has more than doubled. As far as the influence of the is concerned, it should be briefly noted that the federal government has donated over 600 million euros to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 2023 alone.

This development goes hand in hand with rising poverty. In 2023, 43 percent of all families in the US were unable to meet their basic needs, the number of homeless people reached a new high in 2024, and the US ranks among the worst in terms of child poverty. In 2023, 23 million people were without health insurance: this was brought to the fore by the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US. This development is taking place in parallel with China lifting over 800 million people out of poverty over the last four decades.

Looking at foreign policy, it is dominated by wars – Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq – coups – Angola, Nicaragua, Libya, Syria – and assassinations (1, 2, 3). No country has been responsible for more casualties through its foreign policy actions since World War II than the US (1, 2). If this is true of the world's largest democracy – with the participation or approval of other Western democracies – then it is also true that

After World War II, Western democracies developed into the most aggressive form of society. Neither dictatorships nor other forms of government can be blamed for more wars and more deaths. Does it make sense to continue waving the flag of democracy in this way? In a world where hypersonic weapons and cyber and space warfare have been added to nuclear weapons, and computers are increasingly taking over human capabilities? In which genetics is creating further possibilities for replacing humans? In which democracy is losing its innocent face and its appeal? It seems to me that becoming increasingly aggressive as an aging animal with declining strength, a lack of vision and concepts, inadequate leadership, and individuals consumed by self-interest does not seem to be a sustainable course of action for the West, let alone for humanity.

In recent years, American politics has been increasingly dominated by the desire to restructure its own economy at the expense of the rest of the world and to further increase the wealth of its elites: the original American business model is experiencing a renaissance. "Make America Great" has always been the orientation of the elites: they need the "again" to appease their own people, give them hope, and actually correct some of the consequences of the super-profit-oriented globalization approach of modern exploitation.

This development is certainly linked to the rise of China and the perception that Russia is showing the world that it can take on the US militarily. From the perspective of strengthening the Western alliance as a community, the tragic thing about this is that this policy does not stop at weakening its strongest partners, especially Germany. Under Joe Biden, American politics has once again shed its cloak and revealed its brutal side. When Donald Trump now suggests that Canada could become the 51st state of the US, it seems to me that Europe is already further along this path. We are increasingly becoming vassals of the US. However, Germany itself bears a significant responsibility for the aggressive behavior of the US, and this is linked to the German constitution.

The NSA affair has not only revealed the manner and extent to which the US has been acquiring knowledge about Germany – as early as 2013, and it can be assumed that its capabilities in this regard have increased massively in the meantime – enabling it to flexibly assert its interests. It has also clearly conveyed experiences such as the fact that Germany's already limited sovereignty is so deeply ingrained in the German DNA that people are increasingly acting bluntly on the assumption that they can essentially do whatever they want with the Germans. certainly applies to dealing with the elites, but ultimately it applies to all Germans, because with their silence and their misguided focus on the wrong issues, they are contributing to this themselves.

And so the US can make Germany bear the consequences of its wars (1, 2), it can blow up NordStream without any problems and subsequently demand three times higher prices, it can impose sanctions on Russia in order to take markets away from the German economy and damage its competitiveness with higher energy costs, and increasingly ensure that companies move to the US. The war against Russia initiated by the US has so far cost Germany many billions of euros—the true amount appears to be significantly obscured by the detour via Brussels—which could have been put to other uses, and 1.3 million Ukrainians are certainly also a loss-making business from an economic point of view. All this is possible because Germans refuse to confront the problems of their time, preferring instead to live in a fantasy world where they can think of themselves in a completely different light. Quite a few are now so conditioned that they start hyperventilating whenever the slightest Russian influence on the German soul is revealed or claimed somewhere – neglecting the normality in which the US exerts constant and comprehensive influence.

In this respect, Donald Trump will stand for continuity in the enforcement of American interests and will have an easy time with Germany. This also includes the further infiltration of German political parties (1, 2). While in recent decades it was sufficient to focus on the CDU/CSU and the SPD in particular, the AfD is increasingly coming into focus in order to further advance the creative destruction of Germany: Alice Weidel politely thanked Elon Musk for the conversation by expressing her willingness to spend even more than the five percent demanded by Donald Trump on arming the Bundeswehr.

Even if the political and media assessments – and often discrediting – of Donald Trump have changed only marginally since the presidential elections, this does not really correspond to a zeitgeist characterized by short-sightedness and self-interest. Therefore, one cannot rule out the possibility of a well-calculated overture to a play that will place a considerable burden on citizens in the coming years. By playing the bad boy who bullies Europe and demands high tariffs, significant increases in defense budgets, and the costs of reconstruction in Ukraine, politicians in this country can make a name for themselves among their voters by "persuading" him that things will not ultimately turn out as badly as he demands. Quite a few will then be convinced of their own power, but ultimately it will be a game designed to appease the people, and the stronger side will win: the US.

Anyone familiar with my books and articles knows that my analyses are not poisoned by self-interest or malice (1, 2) and serve exclusively the goal of finding comprehensive and sustainable solutions to identified problems (1, 2, 3). In view of my thesis on the damage that aggressive American policy and submissive German action are doing to the long-term strength of the Western alliance, and the question of how else we can be successful, my main contribution is certainly provided by my aphorisms on the humanization of the ape. If Western democracies, and the US in particular, do not want to perish from their internal loss of substance and play a constructive role in shaping our world—any other role runs the risk of our species disappearing from this world—they must complement their pronounced ability to produce technical innovations with the ability for social innovation and strengthen human capital. When C. B. Macpherson remarks in his obituary for liberal democracy

The word "liberal" means both the freedom of the strong to take advantage of the weak according to the laws of the market and the equal and effective freedom of all to develop and use their human abilities. However, the latter freedom is incompatible with the former.

It must be noted that the elites are making sincere efforts to cement the law of the strongest as divine providence for all eternity—and Donald Trump is supposed to revitalize this with new impetus—but they are reaching their limits in terms of tapping into the latter as a profitable potential and are becoming increasingly reactionary, with the involvement of technological progress (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). In this regard, I can not only refer to my own extensive experience, but also add my own thoughts:

But how can we give new impetus to human development? First of all, it should be noted that Humanity is not a group of farm animals at the height of production, which may not provide milk or meat, but provide many other usable products and receive money instead of feed, and thus their feed – not locked up behind fences, but "protected" in virtual space or controlled by implants that then also penetrate into the imagined space – in order to give a small group of Homo sapiens the feeling of being the crown of creation and the absolute rulers of nature – including humanity. No, humanity is called upon to realize in the real world the level of development it has already achieved in the imagined space. Only in becoming human can the survival of the species – and with it, probably a large part of life – be realized.

If the people become increasingly restless about general developments, but themselves act according to the standards that are considered normal in democracy, they are promoting the continuation and consolidation of the systemic problems of democracy. In this respect, the somewhat paradoxical consequence seems to be that the elites themselves must recognize that they need to resolve the paradigm paradox of democracy in order to ensure the continued existence of their opportunities. Emancipation to sovereignty, the development of the individual from a cared-for object to an individually acting, creative, and community-oriented subject, #GermanyFirst instead of America First, and cognitive diversity are relevant keywords in this context. Donald Trump can contribute to this: it would be good for business.

Die zweite Seite der Medaille.pdf

Download PDF • 202KB