Divided States of America

This expression has been used from time to time in the past, many shrugged it off as an exaggeration or cheap sensation jab but presently it looks more and more like reality. Without going too far back in history let us start with the 2016 presidential campaign when political novice Donald Trump entered the race not only against Hillary Clinton but against the whole E-DS-WS-MICIMATT (Establishment, Deep State, Washington Swamp, Military Industrial Complex, Intelligence, Media, Academy, Think Tank) huge machinery, choose any one of these terms you like.  Against all odds, Trump won but even before he entered the White House on January 20, 2021, PBS released the 4-series documentary “Divided States of America” a few days before, exactly on January 17, 2021. For some unknown reasons which one could only guess about this series is no longer available on their site but its 90 second trailer still is. It is worth viewing since one can see many valuable points confirming this article’s headline.

The trailer doesn’t say anything about the role of foreign policy in the polarization process but actually, it did play a significant role after Hillary and Co used Trump’s intention to make Russia a friend instead of a foe to accuse him of being Putin’s stooge.

One of the most distinguished American diplomats George Kennan warned those of us who believed like Trump that the United States has “enough problems around the world and that the U.S. and Russia could perhaps work together on the international stage, saying  that
“Good U.S. – Russia relations are a good thing, not a bad thing,” and adding that only “stupid” people or “fools” would think this was unwise.

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy,” – said Kennan in 1988 when the Soviet Union was still around.

However, when it collapsed, in addition to economic factors, a new deadly virus of unipolar hegemony infected the Washington elites to whom Trump’s intentions were anathema. They didn’t need Russia as a partner since from now on Moscow would have to follow the Washington line, even if this line was contrary to Russia’s interests,

Trump’s presidency was ruined under endless accusations, investigations, media harassment, and impeachment proceedings which added significantly to the division of America.  This process has accelerated dramatically after the 2020 elections when half of the country still believes that Biden stole the victory. Actually the job was done by his campaign manager Tony Blinken who managed with the help of 51 U.S. intelligence officials to create another fake “Russiagate” story by blaming Hunter’s “laptop from hell” on Russia. This story is now hunting Joe and most likely will lead to either his impeachment in the House, drop out from the race, or loss in November 2024.

The state of America’s division is on clear display when despite the almost daily arrival of new information, witnesses, and documents about Joe’s corruption, roughly half of the country doesn’t want to hear or believe it. Instead, the divided parts of  America call each other names and don’t want to listen to their arguments.

This wouldn’t change even if Trump wins since E-DS-WS-MICIMATT is not going anywhere, and

so far there is no unifying figure on the American political stage. No matter who wins, under each scenario, the country will stay deeply polarized for many years to come.

In conclusion here is a short quote from Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense and CIA director, obviously a person in the know, in a recent article in Foreign Affairs titled “The Dysfunctional Superpower”:  “A partisan impeachment inquiry, and the former president facing multiple felony charges across four criminal cases. Add to this chaos a presidential election and it’s fair to say that the U.S. political system will be preoccupied with its own drama and division for some time. ”

When Gates says “some time” it is not very assuring, at least for those of us who do not want to allow this division to escalate into civil war or nuclear WW3 which according to many observers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Biden is pushing the country.