The collapse of the checks and balances which should control the executive power in America continues with incredible speed. Also, the influence and guidance of the president from government, experts and administration is minimal. The majority of the American legislative are reduced to puppets, and even media and knowledge are under attack. Presently you get the impression that the only independent still functioning part of the formerly so effective power-sharing is Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
On the international scene Donald Trump has been very successful in bullying the EU and some other countries in and beyond the American spheres into uneven trade deals supposedly benefitting the economy of the United States.
Thus, the power of the Supreme President looks enormous. But there are limits. Trying to influence the judicial system in allied countries is extreme and this even more so in countries where the courts as opposed to the American Supreme Court are independent. Such interference will be normal and effective procedure some decades from now, but in the present conditions it is premature and counterproductive. As long as there are more than one superpower with overlapping spheres, a such treatment will only push the affected countries into the arms of competing powers. The same goes for high tariffs used solely as political pressure or punishment.
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Nevertheless, the sudden changes in the political system and its behavior in America are remarkable. How has this incredibly quick transition away from mature modernity with power-sharing and democracy been possible?! Here it is useful to think about a revolution. By this I am not talking about a de facto coup d’état where a group or an individual seizes power like in the communist ‘revolution’ in Russia in 1917. A true revolution is a process by which the organization of society and politics change in a time span which is short compared to normal gradual development. Such a quick transition results 1) if development has been held back by conserving forces, and the resulting tensions cause a quick correction or adaption, so that the organization and leadership of a nation again corresponds to the developmental level of society. The archetypal example is the French Revolution. Another opposite possibility is 2) if the leadership of a country has pressed organization and thinking forward before society is ready. In this case we see an opposite correction. A good example is the Iranian Revolution.
We can see the present developments in the United States as a revolution. The changes are so quick because they were long overdue. Society had already for more than two decades left the phase of mature modernity and entered declined modernity. The corresponding change in organization and style of rule had been held back by mature politicians and presidents from both parties and indeed by the complicated system of power-sharing and controls and administration, the so-called deep state.
The current presidency of Donald Trump is the revolutionary correction. Hence the speed of the present changes. But have things then settled down?
Probably not. The problem is that the conflict between mature and the now victorious declined positions has been coupled to the extremely polarized conflict between left and right. This means that the current revolution is not only a correction of old forms, but also a sharp turn to the right in many fields, not least distribution of wealth. This radical right-ward turn can result in a new revolution, this time not so much for a restoration of mature modernity, but for a redistribution of incomes. This may cause a new counter-revolution etc etc. In the end these shifts will be more and more about personal power. This is visible already now.
