Life After Trump? Politics After the Energy Crisis?: Dispatches Mailbag
Been getting a ton of questions from people, which is to be expected in these absolutely bizarre times. I’ve really been enjoying putting together these mailbags and wrestling with a whole host of different topics and questions. This edition is no different. Here, I answer questions regarding what could possibly repair the rupture in trust between the United States of America and the rest of the world and how we can clean up Trump’s numerous and catastrophic messes, whether it’s okay to wish death upon a certain political leader and the psychological reasoning behind it, the problem of greed and consumerism and if we can get beyond it before it destroys us, and, finally, whether the incoming energy crisis could possibly be the thing that breaks us free from fossil fuel and authoritarianism in general.
This really got me thinking about a whole host of things and, as I prepare to undertake some organizing work in the next few days, has got me considering the types of agendas we’re going to need to build if we’re going to win this fight.
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Phillip: Hey Jared, for your next mailbag could I ask how you think a future president could go about trying to repair the damage that has been done on the world stage? At some point democrats and the US citizens are going to have to find a way to bring the US out from this shadow and surely that must be part of Democrat campaigns as part of the primaries both for the midterms and 2028. I haven’t really heard anyone talking about this and yet it’s going to be vital to diplomatically turn this absolute nightmare scenario for the US around as soon as possible. What do you think needs to be done? What kind of reparations need to be paid? Is it just to Iran or is it for all countries affected by both the war in Iran, such as other middle eastern countries that have been attacked due to their association with the US, but also countries around the world that will be affected economically in the coming months, along with all the other economic and civilian issues that this is going to cause, but also the compounding economic and humanitarian catastrophes that have been caused by his tariffs (which are going to hit at around the same as the fuel crisis really starts to kick in) and the cutting of USAID?
Not too long (maybe last week?) I was talking to someone about the “fool me once, fool me twice” paradigm of having all this follow the Barack Obama operation to reassure and repair allies following the War on Terror. I don’t know exactly how the U.S. can win back other nation’s faith considering they’re always four years away from a wildcard election where another madman like Trump can come along and destroy everything. The entire purpose of Neoliberalism destroying democracy was to avoid the unpredictability that democracy can cause. You can’t build a project like global capitalism without some assurance that all the partners will be on the same page, and so you have to take that variable out of the game. Now, at this point, I’m not sure there’s any assurance you can make to the contrary.
Except consistency. When there’s a breach in trust it’s not easy to repair it instantly, it takes time. And, to do that, the Democratic Party, or whatever party would attempt to repair things, would have to show a long and consistent desire to repair relationships and to also build something stable and good. The problem here, and now we’ve arrived at the crux of the problem, is that Neoliberalism now requires an authoritarian turn in order to keep the projects rolling, but that will only lead to more and more conflict, especially with allies. That means that some other plan has to be undertaken that both gets at the material conditions that caused this whole problem (redistribution of wealth) and also shows the ability to create lasting and fruitful partnerships (building new structures). Will get to more of this part of the answer in a question that’s coming up here in a bit. But, to continue this line of thought, it can’t end there.
I brought up Obama’s reaching out to allies who were burned during the War on Terror and I think the gesture there was very powerful, but considering how his assurances fell flat and things just got worse, it will take more than that. Obama’s mistakes, and there are plenty, tend to rest in his unwillingness to make large structural changes and, relatedly, to hold people accountable who corrupted the system in the first place. Obama had no desire to prosecute anyone from the Bush Administration who carried out or planned war crimes and he had no desire to prosecute anyone who melted down the world’s economic system either. There’s no room for that anymore.
To win back faith from the world community, and build the project I’m speaking of, you’re going to have to hold people accountable. Anyone’s who still alive from the Trump Administration will need to be tried and either jailed or receive a harsher punishment. This isn’t just correct politically, it’s also morally and ethically demanded. We’ll have to display a willingness to do this in order to win back trust but also to send a message that nothing like this can possibly happen again. And if you’re thinking I’m talking about Nuremberg style trials, you’re getting the point. Add to that the possibility of using the ill-gotten wealth from Trump and his fellow cronies to pay reparations to people harmed, and you’re making progress.
Relatedly, I do think a truth and reconciliation committee will need to be held in order to sort through not just the corruption and the lies of the Trump Administration but also to comb through our recent history in order to find where the bodies are buried. This will go a long ways toward reestablishing trust internationally and also, it should be noted, reaffirming trust in institutions domestically. And, again, it is simply the right thing to do.