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I’m not a fan of democracy, but if we can distinguish the autonomous political system from representation generally; it’s still worrisome to imagine what our political future would look like once we break past that illusion.
“Fascism” or even “authoritarianism” have never been a pejorative to me, but I still worry about casual uses of the concept. As palatable as I am to the latter, a move to it away from the former doesn’t mean that therefore society becomes ruled under “Tretiak,” or anyone else.
If you ask me, once we realize that, we have two options:
1: A reversion to federalism. We withdraw from foreign affairs slowly, push policy back down to the state and local level, become balkanized. States restrict travel and trade between themselves. Mutually warring courts try to get leverage on the other as they all lose complete control of the legal system. We lose our position as sole superpower, we are no longer the world reserve currency, standards of living drop to come in line with Europe more broadly and our national politics grinds into a multi-century quagmire.
2: Rome 2, Electric Boogaloo.
I’m not at all convinced this is a realistic solution, for a number of reasons.
When you think about how much has changed in the world over the course of the last 100 years, I think the conclusion is fairly easily established that most of the problems waiting out there for us are global in nature, and can’t be addressed on a local or fully individualized basis.
The whole neoliberal obsession with “small efficient government” for instance, is a complete nonstarter. “Small efficient government” works when you face “small efficient” challenges. When you face something ‘systemic’, you need the strong and long reach of the arm of government to be able implement solutions that are 1) unprofitable to do, 2) can’t rely on community consensus to generate the will and 3) need nation state backing - all of which are unworkable on a local level.
As for the US losing superpower status, that’ll happen eventually. As it has with every nation that’s come before us. Whatever that catalyzing moment will be, nobody knows. But that doesn’t mean other nations won’t be stepping in to try and fill that void as best as they can. Any ground lost is ultimately ground ceded to an aspiring rival power.
To be clear, I think option 2, which is essentially what you outline here, is far more likely.
I do not think it is preferable, but it is the way of the world as I understand it.
Yes, most major issues are global, so there is pressure for a global solution. And the US is the only country who can swing it, currently. Our system is not so different from Republican Rome. We allow our "allies" their own sovereignty, so long as they provide troops and political cover. In time, they may drift closer and demand greater rights within our world order. In a couple centuries, everything we call NATO right now could be US states. As power flows into Washington, who controls it becomes increasingly fraught. Too important to be left to voters, who will be still voting, of course. Factions will form, compete. The mob in DC will be a significant player in world politics. The military will become political, and this will lead at some point to a coup. There may be several before someone makes monarchy stick under some appropriately humble title. By that time, political opposition will be primarily internal.
This is all wild speculation of course.
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Which issues does the US currently face that require a government to have the level of power that the US currently wields that could not be better solved by simply allowing people to act freely?
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Maybe we're getting a little far off topic here, but this is touching on one of my bigger general concerns. Many of our problems do seem pretty big. To be specific, I'm talking about things like how much control near-monopoly tech companies and national mega-corps are coming to have over our lives, specifically retail and news and entertainment media, how much influence a united and stable Russia, China, etc are able to wield over world affairs, etc. I'm not so sure that a United States with the Federal gov effectively throttled and the many State governments ascendant would be better able to deal with these issues.
The issue is that the unthrottled FedGov we have now is the thing that is working with near monopoly tech companies to extend even more control of our lives, and by "our" I mean anyone on Earth. A united and stable Russia, China, etc. might be enough to provide counter balance, but I'm not convinced.
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