Stupid is as stupid does, as you might encounter at times; such stupidity needs to be responded to, even when the tools at hand are limited:
It is perhaps difficult to determine who or what is the biggest threat to this country: China, Russia or the Trumpist Republican Party. Like all paranoid authoritarian types, China, Russia and Donald Trump and his disciples view citizens in their own countries with as much suspicion and fear as they do “adversarial” countries. There is no country that wants to “invade” China or Russia, and the West claims that it just wants to insure that they can be trust to act in some kind of “harmony” taking into account the interests of other countries and negotiating in good faith if there are differences. Neither China nor Russia seems interested in doing these things, bullying and threatening weaker neighbors. Meanwhile, in the U.S. the only people who have actively sought to “steal” elections in this country by voter suppression are Republicans, and Trumpists are already suggesting that violence might be “necessary” if the 2024 election doesn’t turn out the way they want.
China and Russia can be said to be operating on two slightly different sets of principles, with Russia under Vladimir Putin seemingly lacking any moral or ethical principles, while the only “principle” China operates on under Xi Jinping is paranoia—and Trumpism seems to combine all of those “principles.” Both China and Russia engaged in cyber warfare and technology theft, and have interfered in the sovereign legal rights of neighboring countries that are no threat to them, save that have something they “want”—like land or resources. Does China really “need” Taiwan? No. Does Russia “need” Ukraine? No, but their leaders are psychotic megalomaniacs thirsting for more power and more territory, and in at least China’s “Master Race” mentality, to rule the world both economically and militarily as much as by weakening other countries, which is hardly “neighborly.”
In his book The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order Rush Doshi writes that the foolish and greed-motivated financial deregulation law passed during the Clinton administration, that led to the 2007-2008 financial meltdown, allowed China to see “U.S. power as diminished and emboldened it to take a more confident approach. Now, with the invocation of ‘great changes unseen in a century’ following Brexit, President Trump’s election, and the coronavirus pandemic, China is launching a third strategy of displacement, one that expands its blunting and building efforts worldwide to displace the United States as the global leader.”
China’s “world order” would be much different than the one that the U.S. ostensibly believes in, although first it must accomplish the following, which Chinese leaders believe they can by 2049:
A fully realized Chinese order might eventually involve the withdrawal of US forces from Japan and Korea, the end of American regional alliances, the effective removal of the US Navy from the Western Pacific, deference from China’s regional neighbors, unification with Taiwan, and the resolution of territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. Chinese order would likely be more coercive than the present order, consensual in ways that primarily benefit connected elites even at the expense of voting publics, and considered legitimate mostly to those few who it directly rewards. China would deploy this order in ways that damage liberal values, with authoritarian winds blowing stronger across the region. Order abroad is often a reflection of order at home, and China’s order-building would be distinctly illiberal relative to US order-building.
China clearly wants a world dominated by authoritarian dictatorships like itself which it will be the global leader. Putin probably doesn’t believe Russia can still “rule the world”—or maybe he does?—but he certainly believes that he needs a like-minded partner in China. I doubt, however, that Chinese leaders view Russia as an “equal” partner now, but a “junior” partner whose current economic weakness from sanctions allows it to be manipulated geopolitically to serve its own purposes. Perhaps in China’s view, in the future Russia be no more than a naughty child, like North Korea, that needs an occasional scolding when playing with its dangerous “toys.”
In “peace-loving” countries like the U.S. and Western Europe—who only “fight” when “right” is at stake—this kind of adversarial and bullying behavior was thought to be something only “children” engaged in. But Putin and Xi don’t think “like us”—unless you are named Trump or Marine Le Pen, who despite an apparent defeat today’s French presidential election, the fascist candidate still polled a disturbing 40+ percent of the vote. They are as power mad as Hitler with visions of global domination on their terms only, and are only capable of “working” with non-authoritarian countries insofar as they can be taken advantage of economically, as Western Europe fooled itself into believing that Russia would “play nice” as long as the EU allowed itself to be dependent on Russian oil and gas, and in the U.S, “Made in China” is on virtually every consumer product sold here. It was a huge mistake to allow China in the WTO, and an incredibly stupid move by Trump to void the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, done for the juvenile reason that Trump wanted to “erase” anything to do with Barack Obama.
Of course, China and Russia can only do this with a cowed and foolish population fed lies and misinformation. As with all authoritarian regimes—as Orwell wrote about in Animal Farm and 1984—once the population has been twisted into believing that bad is really “good” when its leaders do it, and the populace kept in a state of fear from threats from the “outside,” even as the state itself is in fact the principle threat to peace, knowledge of such must be kept from the populace at all cost. The populace must be made to believe that giving up any and all rights to free speech and the freedom of assembly—let alone vote for their own representatives—is the “price” for remaining “free” to allow the madness of a few be their guide. In such a world the “enemy” is everywhere, ready to strike at a moment’s notice, and the populace must be willing to “sacrifice” their rights in this perpetual state of “emergency.”
But we in this country are more “intelligent” to fall for that line, right? Not if you are a Republican, whose candidate has lost seven of the last eight presidential popular votes. There is much to fear from “the people” who don’t vote “right,” even with your billionaire/corporate-funded culture wars, paranoia about dark-skinned “invaders” and belief in “stolen elections.” What to do? Pass voter suppression laws and gerrymander voting district maps that look like a Jackson Pollock painting to take away the right of millions to vote and make a sham of government for and by the people.
Or simply take away people’s right to vote in the name of preventing “fraud.” With many Republicans in Congress at least tacitly (and some outright openly) supporting “insurrection” if the 2024 election is “stolen,” laws in some states that make it more difficult to vote means the most basic right of a citizen in this country is being taken away simply because Republicans under the sway of Trumpism believe only in absolute power, not democracy—just like any authoritarian, fascist state. The extremists in the Republican electorate do not care if the right to vote is suppressed if it means only their “rights” are protected, meaning the right to abuse other citizens’ rights because they believe only their views deserve to be heard.
It is those beliefs that foolish, ignorant people would move this country toward—the “world order” envisioned by China in its quest to become the rightful “superpower” in the world—which it already is in trade with so much of the world grown dependent on it. With Russia seeking to undermine democracy in the U.S. by insuring the election of a man unfit to be president (Trump), whose so-called "America First" policies only weakened the U.S.’ standing both domestically and internationally, people in this country need to start thinking what kind of country and world they want to live in—one ruled by the people, or one by authoritarians who are subservient to Chinese economic blackmail and Russian "cyber support."
It will be a close-run thing. We see Trump continuing to hold his Nuremberg rallies, his cult of personality still strong. Trump thinks he is above the law and unaccountable to anyone for his actions or crimes. The people who attend these rallies in person or in spirit don’t seem to realize that they are being sucked into a black hole of ignorance, stupidity and danger, completely unaware that Trump is using them for his own protection from his crimes in which they are willingly complicit. January 6 was proof enough of that, and too many people still refuse to learn any “lessons” from it.
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