About That “Death Of American Global Leadership” Thingy? Not So Fast.

I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it .  George Carlin

God, it’s been a long three years. From the first baby steps of the Trump administration, the handwriting was on the wall for a total global debacle for American leadership. From Trump’s ill fated decision to make his first international trip to an at best shaky ally like Saudi Arabia, while snubbing traditional US allies like The United Kingdom, France, and Canada, sent off warning bells.

From Trump’s head-up-his-ass decision to leave the JCPOA, better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, to refusing to come right out and fully and faithfully endorse article 5 at his first NATO appearance, to his repeated claims in speeches that the United States could no longer be “the world’s policeman,” pundits and international political observers alike started bemoaning the Death of American leadership across the glove.

And it only got worse. Trump’s fawning obsession with Vladimir Putin, his positive words for Philippine thug Duterte, his willingness to give Saudi prince MBS a free pass for the senseless slaughter of a US based Saudi journalist, his tone deaf congratulations to Turkish President Erdogan for a rousing reelection in a rigged election, and his stone stupid “And then we fell in love” embrace of North Korean animal Kim Jong Un, all led the leaders of free nations to despair as to the direction the United States was taking.

But you know what? I discovered a little something along the way. I discovered that just like the body politic of the United States has not folded anywhere near as neatly as Trump would have liked to conform with his own world view, neither has the general world opinion of the United States, or what it stands for, folded ti match Trump’s imbecilic meanderings and strong man coddling.

Since the coronavirus pandemic crashed the US economy, I have spent a considerable amount of time  chronicling the fact that there we.re actually two economies in the United States, the Wall Street Economy that was ion fact fairly well insulated from the turbulence of the pandemic crisis, and the Main Street Economy. in which 45 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, and spent hours sitting in their cars waiting to get a bag of groceries from a food bank.

But it recently struck me that the same is true as far as the world as a general place is concerned. While world leaders of pretty much every world democracy have been sitting around wringing their hands and thumping their breasts at the withdrawal of the United States from its proper place in the world, the actual people of the rest of the world have had a different reaction. And in support of my thesis, I would like to provide you with two separate examples, one pre Covid-19, and -one post Covid-19.

On January 20th, 2017, Donald John Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Or as Bruce Willis is wont to say, Yippee-ki-yay motherfucker! And what happened ion January 21st, 2017? The glorious Women’s March on Washington. What turned out to be the largest single day protest in American history. But it didn’t stop there. People around the globe came out in solidarity of the marchers in the United States, creating the largest single day mass demonstration in history. And that was before Trump had even done anything yet.

So much for ancient history, now let’s move to what in the era of Trump passes for current history. Twenty five days ago, an unarmed black man by the name of George Floyd was murdered by officers of the Minneapolis police department. The reaction was immediate. It sparked days of protests in Minneapolis, which spread like wildfire throughout the United States, because one bridge too far had been crossed.

But it didn’t stop there. Within days, the death of George Floyd, and the protests it spawned in the United States spawned protests throughout the rest of the civilized world. Why? Because no matter where you live in this big,  beautiful world of outs, there is always going to be somebody who ends up chewing on the shit end of the stick. And the people of the world rise up in protest with the citizens of the United States for all of those who suffer under officially sanctioned suppression.

So please,don’t lost faith. Because while the leaders of the free world may wail and gnash their teeth at the antics of El Pendejo Presidente, When the people of the world want to know what’s what, and which way the winds of freedom and democracy and human equality are blowing, it’s the people of the United States, and not that overstuffed poltroon in the White House that they’re paying attention to. We still matter. And we’ll still matter long after His Lowness retreats to Mata-A-Lago to cheat at golf full time, and fighting state charges.

To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen

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