“The American Empire Is Over” the Future? Or Can It Be Headed Off?

The 2016 election will go down in history as the end of the beginning or beginning of the end of the American empire as we all knew it growing up. Yes, we had two “flawed candidates” as both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were categorized as in those years. Clinton was uber competent, but she had none of her husband Bill’s charisma. She was not a good campaigner and according to Rick Wilson, even Bill told her that. I have no reason to disbelieve Wilson. And unfair as it is, charisma wins elections. Being telegenic wins elections. It’s the raw truth of campaigning in an age where television dominates peoples’ worldviews to the extent that it does.

Trump, who was a horrifically unqualifed candidate for any public office, let along our land’s highest one, was a complete joke. But Trump had something going for him that no other candidate before him had ever had, and that was a TV show that advanced a certain pitch about the candidate. We were given to know, for fourteen years, that Donald Trump was a self made billionaire and a mover of mountains, a man of great insight and incredible acumen in business. A lot of people bought it.

And so, after eight years of peaceful Democratic reign, the political pendulum decided to swing back, as it usually does after eight years (or certainly twelve) with one party and go the other direction. And Trump won. But that win was not just a winning of a four-year term, as all the other wins in presidential history have been. No, in fact, it was a harbinger of doom for this nation. We said it at the time and now with a second Trump term just barely underway, it’s becoming clear what the stakes really are and what we have lost.

There’s a blog I stumbled up, Altucher Confidential. It posits a number of theories and one in particular seems sound, although it’s not cheerful. It basically describes the global shifting of power that we predicted if the catastrophe of a second Trump win would come to pass. It did come to pass, so push aside your antidepressants for the moment and see how the shifting of the political wind is going to affect us all. This is from the section The American Empire Is Over.

[Futurist and software developer Balaji Srinivasan] opened with a pill that, I’m sure, went down a lot easier in Dubai: The American Empire was real. It was spectacular. But now it’s over.

It had:

• The global reserve currency.

• The world’s biggest military.

• Cultural dominance via Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Coca-Cola.

But now? All the arrows are pointing down.

• Left vs. Right: America’s internal culture war is no longer just political—it’s existential. Each side sees the other as illegitimate. It’s more than disagreement. It’s dissolution.

• China vs. Uncle Sam: Globally, America’s dominance is being challenged on every physical front—energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, trade routes, even space. The unipolar moment is over.

• CEOs fleeing Delaware like it’s on fire: The U.S. used to be the default jurisdiction for business. Now founders are looking elsewhere after activist judges and inconsistent rulings make corporate law unpredictable. When Delaware no longer works, America’s economic software is breaking down.

America isn’t collapsing because of an external shock. It’s unraveling from within. The vacuum is forming now.

And China is stepping in.

China Isn’t the Future—It’s One of the Futures

Peter Zeihan says America wins the next 100 years because of geography. Balaji says: China already won the physical world.

Just look at the scoreboard:

• #1 in steel, cars, rail, nuclear energy, ports, ships, cities.

• Largest navy on earth.

• A car factory the size of San Francisco.

• A flying car you can actually ride in—already livestreamed by IShowSpeed.

They’re not just copying the West anymore. They’re building bigger and faster. And the West is falling behind.

And yet…

China might win the physical game. But they’ve lost the internet.

China’s Real Challenger? The Internet Itself

This is the big flip.

Balaji says the future isn’t China vs. America.

It’s China vs. the Internet.

A billion-person superstate vs. a thousand million-person networks.

Because the internet isn’t a physical place—but it’s about to create physical places. Not just online chat rooms or Twitter cliques. But actual jurisdictions, with their own economies, rules, currencies, contracts, identities.

And most importantly? Values.

If you think that’s a stretch…

Consider that you already live “internet first.” The internet has already replaced the mail system, media, mobility, space programs, money, contracts, science, and democracy.

It’s not just integrating into the old civilization. In Balaji’s eyes, it’s becoming its own civilization. And instead of being born in a capital or a castle, it’s being built on GitHub, Discord, Ethereum, and encrypted group chats.

He says:

“If you went from gold → fiat → Bitcoin…

You can go from Kingdom → Nation-State → Network State.”

Just like America was once a group of small colonies that grew, merged, and formed a union—Balaji believes online communities will do the same.

In fact, it’s already happening.

The Two Models

Let’s zoom out.

There are two competing visions of civilization emerging:

1. The Vertical Model (China): Everything is centralized. One stack. One state. One culture. Efficiency, scale, and order. The Party and the Platform are one.

2. The Horizontal Model (The Internet): Imagine if your government was more like Netflix. Sign up. Cancel anytime. Compete for your loyalty. That’s the internet’s idea of power.

And here’s the part that’ll make your inner centrist squirm:

“If your life isn’t aligned with one of those two vectors—China or the Internet—you’re in trouble.”

If you’re starting to wonder how sharp or dull the razor blades in the bathroom are, don’t go there yet. Trump has only been back in office for a few months and the entire world is disgusted with him, not just half of America. So none of this is carved in stone. Yet. But the trends and the tendencies are all there and that’s what you need to follow. It’s important to keep two or even five steps ahead of what you’re actually hearing reported in the mass media on any given day.

Democrats will most likely retake the House in 2026 and the fate of the Senate is far from being carved in stone at this point. Trump, himself, is a hollow failing shell of a man and he’s surrounded himself with complete idiots. It’s extremely likely that one of his minions (and yes, I’m betting on Pete Hegseth) will do something godawful to where even Marco Rubio will disown himself from the situation. We live in volatile times.

Point being, the best case scenario we can hope for is that America learns such a hard lesson from this Trump 2.0 debacle that it causes a severe shift back to the Democrats and the Democrats hold the line. We have seen this in history. We saw this after the Depression and WWII. Democrats had a powerful coalition and it held for decades.

It’s not time to give up yet. It is time, however, to observe the larger trends and be prepared to go with the flow.

*************

Friends, I am ill and haven’t been producing as much content, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. If you can help us survive during these challenging times, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Ursula

Support the site with a subscription today and see no more ads!

Go Ad-free Now!