Political Dysfunction Is the Greatest Threat to the U.S.

One hears constant bloviating from the political right - particularly from Der Trumpenfuhrer - about "making America great again" which in reality means to make American culture and politics white dominated and to force non-whites, non-Christians and LGBT individuals back into the shadows as in the 1950's.  As a column in the Washington Post lays out, America remains the world's sole super power and the alleged decline of America the right whines about is in fact not true for the most part.  Rather, the gravest threat to American power and international dominance is most threatened by the political right and the fascists within the MAGA movement.  These people, especially Donald Trump, would break America's alliances and a sizeable portion of the Republican Party now favors dictators around the globe and seeks to end democracy at home as well. How else to explain Republican's refusal to send more aid to Ukraine which is nothing less than an outright gift to Vladimir Putin or Trump's threat to withdraw from NATO? Equally disturbing are the House Republicans who cannot even pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.  Collectively, these actions threaten America's security and economic health.  Here are column highlights:

Predicting the decline of U.S. power has always been fashionable. Only the identity of the country that was supposedly going to overtake us has changed: Once, it was the Soviet Union, then it was Japan, and now it’s China. But despite years of costly fiascoes . . . . the United States still stands as the world’s sole superpower.

While we continue to obsess about external threats, particularly from Russia and China, the biggest menace we face is our own political dysfunction. In trying unsuccessfully to break Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) destructive hold on military nominees, which is risking the readiness of the U.S. armed forces, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said on Nov. 1: “We are going to look back at this episode and just be stunned at what a national-security suicide mission this became.” That warning applies more generally to American politics: If U.S. power does go into terminal decline, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

It is true that we are no longer quite as dominant internationally as we were 30 years ago. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, we are hardly in decline. . . . . The United States remains the “indispensable nation,” as then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called it in 1998.

Where is our closest competitor, China? It’s been largely invisible, more or less adopting a position of neutrality in both conflicts [Gaza and Ukraine], while rhetorically sniping at the United States and continuing to trade with both Russia and Iran.

This is no anomaly: It reflects a world in which China aspires to global leadership but, notwithstanding its costly Belt and Road Initiative, remains largely a bit player outside its own backyard. China’s economy is almost as large as America’s, but China lags far behind in per capita income. There is a distinct possibility that China might never overtake the United States in terms of gross domestic product, in fact, because it might grow old before it grows rich. And while China is a growing military threat in East Asia, it cannot project power around the world as only the United States can.

While China now has the world’s largest navy, it is a force focused on its own littoral waters, not on dominating the world’s oceans as the U.S. Navy has done for the past 80 years. The United States has 68 nuclear submarines to only 12 for China, and 11 aircraft carriers to only two for China. Russia is even further behind the United States both economically and militarily. Its armed forces have been revealed in Ukraine to be far weaker than they looked in Kremlin propaganda videos, and will need years to recover from the pummeling they have received at the hands of Ukrainian troops equipped with Western weapons. North Korea and Iran are regional menaces but don’t seriously threaten U.S. power globally.

Indeed, the United States still accounts for 24 percent of the global economy — more than any other country and only slightly down from its 1990 level of 26 percent. Of the 10 largest companies in the world ranked by market cap, nine are American; none is Chinese. The United States also spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined.

Given the United States’ economic, diplomatic and military might — a reflection of its vibrant and dynamic society — there is no reason we cannot continue to lead the world in the 21st century.

Unless, of course, we abdicate our position of unmatched power. I fear we might be in the process of doing just that — not as a conscious decision but simply as an outgrowth of our domestic political dysfunction.

The Senate still seems incapable of breaking Tuberville’s hold and confirming hundreds of military officers who are needed at their posts. The Republican-controlled House seems incapable of passing a budget and might force a government shutdown this week.

It used to be said that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” You can debate whether that was true in the past. It’s definitely not true now. Foreign policy has become yet another partisan battleground, and the collateral damage is likely to include the United States’ standing in the world.

For the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor, there is a substantial isolationist movement in the United States that wants to repudiate a bipartisan, stunningly successful post-World War II foreign policy based on free trade and security alliances with fellow democracies. If Donald Trump regains the White House — which, recent polls suggest, is quite possible — he would be likely to abandon both NATO and Ukraine. U.S. allies in East Asia that depend on U.S. troop deployments, notably South Korea and Japan, would also be at risk of abandonment.

The new generation of America Firsters seems hellbent on crippling the United States’ global power. They might succeed where challengers such as China, Russia, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Iran, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and others have failed.