Empire comes home to the U.S.

Trump makes obvious dictatorial potentials that have long been growing

California National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles. Source: U.S. Northern Command

4 minute read

History is catching up with the United States. The center of the most globe-spanning empire in history, empire is now coming home to its own shores.

The scenes of troops in the streets, with people being seized and hauled off to camps, ordered by a would-be strongman who acts as a law unto himself, have been witnessed in many countries. We have seen it all too often. Some notable examples have been Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Iran and Indonesia, spurred by U.S. covert actions to preserve the power of domestic oligarchies beholden to U.S. economic interests. Now we see the same brute assertions of absolute power coming to the U.S., for much the same reasons.

Empires can pursue the most dictatorial policies in their colonial reaches while preserving liberal democracy in their domestic metropoles. In fact, the wealth provided by empire allows this. But when things tighten up, and competition for limited resources increases, liberal democracy fades and the velvet glove comes off the iron fist.

The U.S. now faces such a situation. China has now replaced the U.S. as the preeminent industrial and trading power in the world with leadership in many technological fields. Within the U.S., corporations pressed to make profits in a time of economic stagnation are increasingly squeezing most people. This is enabled by the concentration of power into oligopolies in which most major industries are concentrated into a handful of mega-corporations. Behind the corporations are the billionaires, insistently accumulating more and more wealth unto themselves while most people fall behind, sinking deeper in debt.

Corporations and billionaires have used their power to radically cut their taxes, shifting the burden onto the rest of us. The result is deep federal deficits financed by borrowing, leading to interest payments now exceeding military expenditures. It is clear this is a ponzi scheme that cannot continue, as proven by the growing reluctance of investors to buy U.S. debt.

Meanwhile, concentrated economic power has come to own the national government. When potent interests collide with popular sentiment, the former almost always wins. Otherwise, we would have universal health care, free college education, a sharp jump in the minimum wage, and serious action to reduce climate-destroying pollution. Weapons would not be flowing to Israel. Of course, the reality is as we see it.

The U.S. has been in a slow glide toward oligarchic fascism for decades. Wealthy interests have increasingly seized power and cut off routes of democratic engagement. They have been empowered by a right-wing Supreme Court that has effectively removed all limits to campaign donations, while giving a pass to measures that enable voter suppression. Meanwhile, an imperial presidency has grown in power throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries, waging overt and covert wars without Congressional approval.

Today many calls are coming to save our democracy and stop fascism. But the question is how much democracy have we really had, and to what extent has a form of soft fascism already emerged. After all, one definition of fascism is the merger of corporations and the state. This is not to say we have no democracy, but it is strongest in localities and some states. And as stated, it is weakest at the federal level where corporations are strongest.

What makes the present moment different is the blatant pursuit of absolute power by Trump and his people. Ignoring court orders. Threatening to arrest public officials. Federalizing National Guard units. Sending troops from a compliant state such as Texas to one where the governor has resisted such as Illinois. While we have been drifting away from democracy for a long time under the cover of democratic norms, Trump is ripping away the veil. If there is daylight in this dark sky, it is that this is a moment of clarity, when the potentials for a dictatorial state that have been building for a long time come into full view.

The point is these potentials have been there. They are inherent in the role of the U.S. as the center of an empire. Militarism, a vast intelligence-surveillance state, control of domestic politics by global corporations, and above all, the increasing power of the presidency, the great engine of empire. We should not be shocked that what has been seen in so many counties controlled by the U.S. is coming home to haunt us.

Thus, to save what democracy we have and stem the tide of fascism, we need to dig deep into the roots of our current situation and envision a post-imperial future. As empire is all about concentrated power, we will need to find ways to spread it out to our cities and states, communities and bioregions, to create genuine democracy. To that I will turn in coming posts.

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