The rise of Trump and Trumpism cannot be fully explained without first recognizing how, over the last two decades, American politics has been shaped by the rise of China. 🧵
Despite both parties preferring to deemphasize foreign policy in their campaigns, US foreign policy is the engine driving domestic policy. This is because modern US domestic politics is fundamentally a game of dividing up the plunder that foreign policy secures.
This plunder arrives in the form of persistent federal govt budget deficits which are maintained via the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar’s position as global reserve currency, an arrangement forced upon the rest of the globe in the ashes of the world wars of last century.
Since WW2, this unilateral global arrangement has been maintained through a mixture of brute force, monopoly control of global institutions, and a healthy dose of quid pro quo with its junior partners that comprise the western world.
In the same way that domestic politics is downstream of foreign policy, US elections are downstream of real disagreements amongst factions within the US bourgeoisie. The two political parties represent the diverging PR strategies by which empire is sold to the underclasses.
The increasing polarization of mainstream domestic politics can thus be attributed not to the rise of social media, “foreign interference”, or other facile explanations liberal pundits offer, but rather to a real divergence in imperial strategy given life by partisan jockeying.
Historically, the factions comprising this divide have been the domestic bourgeoisie+petit bourg. elements on one side and the financial/international bourg. on the other.
Until recently, the former was given political form by the GOP, the latter by the Dems.
But over the past year, the tech giants that account for a sizable portion of Dem party backing appeared to switch sides and coalesce their support behind Trump.
What caused this sudden shift?
In a word: China
For years, China represented both a massive labor and manu. hub for US outsourcing, and a massive consumer market for US-branded goods.
But recently–-accelerated by US tariffs and the pandemic–-Chinese-branded goods have begun out-competing those from the US.
As a result, Silicon Valley—which has historically seen their interests best served by Dem-led foreign policy—are now casting their lot with Trump and his more openly hostile stance toward China.
Musk’s open campaigning for Trump really only makes sense in light of his (correct) anticipation that China’s domestic manufacturers will rapidly overtake Tesla as the worldwide leader in EVs.
Thus, in just a few years, America’s tech giants have shifted from seeking to maintain China as a market and manufacturing hub, to finding themselves facing a formidable competitor. In this way, they are now in a similar position the US domestic bourg. faced decades prior.
With both major factions in US capital now under increasing threat of competition from the same source, capital is unified in backing the horse they believe has the winning strategy: open confrontation with China.
American liberals have largely failed to notice this sudden alignment of capital behind Trump because their lofty rhetoric serves only to obscure their own view of US imperial policy and are thus unable to understand the source of the apparent decay.
Liberals didn’t dislike Bush because he killed a million Iraqis, but because of the gaffs and embarrassment he brought to the office. He struck a blow at the heart of liberal identity, which is heavily tied to a perceived sense of respectability of US empire. Trump does the same.
But from the perspective of the rest of the world, the neoliberal era was the aberration.
Trump represents a return to an era of more honest US politics without the sneering veneer of respectability liberals value. An era of open hostility to secure naked self-interest.
Contrary to what frustrated liberal pundits will assert tomorrow, Americans as a whole aren't "dumb", which is often a lazy way of accusing groups of “voting against their own self-interest”. Trump voters are *very aware* of what they are getting with Trump.
Liberals may pull out their hair and point toward Trump’s unapologetic self-interest as proof of his unsuitability for the role.
But this self-interest is exactly what his voters ordered, and hope he will deliver.
It has been said that “liberalism is capitalism’s lying smile, fascism is capitalism’s honest fists”.
Americans have once again voted for the fists, and this time, it appears they have a majority of US capital behind them.
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US-backed attempts at foreign destabilization always try to leverage *real* grievances, not to bring any resolution to the aggrieved. Quite the opposite, they attempt to intensify.
The only correct position for the western left to take is to oppose *ALL* forms of intervention.
Yellen is once again traveling to Beijing, this time to try to get China to curb “overproduction”.
What's the real goal? 🧵
The goal of this pressure campaign is to somehow convince China to self-sabotage the foundation of their budding prosperity—their means of production—thereby eliminating the competition.
Why don't the capitalist countries try to out-compete China on commodity prices instead?
They've tried!
But due to decades of offshoring productive capacity and hoovering up their best and brightest minds into the financial and "tech" sectors, regaining a competitive edge will require a lot more effort than simply throwing money at the problem.
On Monday, Israeli fighter jets bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus killing over a dozen people in an outrageous act of provocation against both Iran and Syria.
It is clear that Israel is intent on instigating a direct confrontation with Iran.
What’s the goal? 🧵
While this attack represents a blatant provocation, it is not without precedent by western powers. Those old enough might recall a similarly atrocious act by the US in the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Iran's increasingly close alignment with Russia and China over the past few years is something Israeli and American foreign policy experts have feared since Brzezinski's warning in 1997.
In America, a "FICO Credit Score™ " is a blacklist administered by an unelected private oligopoly.
Americans are inducted into this capitalist credit initiative from birth, which controls everything from where they can live and which employer they are allowed to work for.
In order to be allowed to live in a house when they're older, Americans must begin taking out loans starting from an early age—even if they don't need a loan.
Americans call this ritual to appease private banks and landlords "building credit".
Before being hired, many employers require Americans to divulge their FICO credit history to assess their trustworthiness.
If deemed insufficiently trustworthy, an applicant will not be hired.
It has become clear Israel has no plan beyond trying to force millions of Palestinians into the Sinai desert by starving and bombing all that remain in Gaza. Israel is acting as if any Egyptian objection to this plan is a bluff.
This is utter insanity. 🧵
Despite being led by a US puppet, Egypt is facing a dramatic economic crisis of their own that worsens each day of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
Both Suez transit fees and tourism—key buttresses of govt revenue—have fallen off a cliff since Oct 7.
Egypt's recent decision to increase transit fees betrays a level of desperation, since higher fees only make the shipping via the alternate route around Africa more attractive when new insurance risk premiums are factored in, and thus risk additional rerouting.