It may just be a reflection of the lowered political level in the United States, but for most inhabitants and politicians in Europe, Latin America, China etc. it looks as if America is being covered and swallowed by a deluge of incomprehensible madness and garbage.
How does this affect thinking and politics in the outside world? Two thousand years ago the Romans had incorporated almost all countries in the Greco-Roman Civilisation. Therefore every nation had to follow Rome in the chaotic decline. Obviously this is not the situation for the United States today. Therefore countries and populations in the rest of the world have a choice. Should we follow the Americans and let us be swallowed or not? In recent posts I have argued that not all parts of a civilisation are bound to follow the steep decline in late modernity. Some may do this, but others can manage to prolong or sustain mature modernity. This choice was what I called a new bifurcation.
The question is how the impression of the deluge in America will affect the political decline elsewhere. Either it will serve as inspiration and encourage populists, e.g. in Europe, or it will do the opposite. I tend to believe the latter.
The US example is so grotesque and exaggerated that it will deter voters and politicians from going further in that direction:
1} The broad population in places like Europe and China etc. are far better educated than people in America. The US educational system is a miserable scandal. In these years many people everywhere do indeed want simple and polarized solutions. But knowledge and schooled causal thinking nevertheless expose the limits of populism.
2} Hundreds or in Asia thousands of years of cultural and humanistic refinement makes present America look like schoolboys. Also Latin America has strong traditions of culture and political thinking which make the present United States look like clowns.
3} US foreign and trade policy with bullying, punishment and interference plus American support for the atrocities in Gaza cause resentment.
These points mean that support for Trump is limited to minorities in countries which have a strong cultural heritage or are well educated. Support for populists too closely associated with the US president is likely to fall as new absurdities are reported from America on a daily basis. This tendency will of course only be amplified as America slips into civil war.
If America pushes countries and peoples away, what can these do? As is obvious for everybody - almost everybody - the United States as opposed to Rome does not control the world politically and militarily. The existence of other giants like China, Russia, Europe and India sets boundaries. This gives us a choice. We do not need to follow the US deluge. Instead, following one or more of the other big powers can give us strength to uphold mature modernity.
