American Tariffs – Trumpism From Liberal Benevolence To Capricious Narcissism

"The notion that big business and big labor and big government can sit down around a table somewhere and work out the direction of the American economy is at complete variance with the reality of where the American economy is headed. I mean, it's like dinosaurs gathering to talk about the evolution of a new generation of mammals." ~ Bruce Babbitt

"The corruption will come back to haunt the Trump administration. But mostly, it'll come back to haunt the American economy, as companies decide they can make money by rent-seeking, by getting money from government rather than earning it the old-fashioned way." ~ David Brooks

"There are four headwinds that are just hitting the American economy in the face: They're demographics, education, debt and inequality. They're powerful enough to cut growth in half." ~ Robert J. Gordon

"What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies." ~ Fareed Zakaria

America's ascent as a global neo-imperialistic liberal benevolence democracy is an interesting analysis of the ever-present geopolitical power. At an early point of the American experiment, its power reached outward under the veil of liberal generosity, molding world order. This "neo-imperialism" was insidious, but effective, creating a self-evident hegemony. With a chain of over 120 military bases spread throughout the world and over 200 military interventions since the close of World War II, the American experiment imposed its power well beyond its own borders.

Its economic power, previously a giant of industrialization, had been transformed in the past 30 years with the rise of China's industrialization and education improvements, towards American deindustrialization toward a service and high tech economy. International power relations similarly experienced a transformation, from a bipolar rivalry with the former Soviet Union to an age of American unipolarity. Yet the very essence of power demands such changes, and at present, the world exists in a multipolar age.

A telling shift in U.S. Trumpism policy arrives in a turn away from free trade agreements, the very foundation of its former economic dominance. The imposition of tariffs on every country brings comprehensive international disorder, and confidence in the American system of trade starts to weaken. This demonstrates a basic principle of power: that even the greatest player sometimes does something against its long-term interest due to internal stresses or a sense of necessity for short-run advantage. This history of America's liberal benevolence to capricious narcissism Trump administration teaches us the timeless cycles of human nature, the need to conquer, the rise and fall of hegemony, and the nagging temptation to exercise power, sometimes at the cost of domestic institutions and other nations, friends and foes.