Trump is symptom of a senile Empire
JVL Introduction
This thoughtful, powerful and wide ranging piece finds many parallels with fascist regimes noting that the US “… ruling class, Democrats and Republicans, piece by piece, dismantled democracy. In Germany and Italy, the constitutional state, as well, collapsed long before the arrival of fascism. Trump, who is the symptom, not the disease, inherited the corpse. He is making good use of it.”
The authors highlight the collapse of diplomacy and also the over-reach, eg on military spend and spread. They reference Chalmers Johnson who wrote two decades ago that: “We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire.”
Trump is the ghastly symptom of the loss of democracy, the power of Corporations and big money in the electoral as well as so many other aspects of life. The writers predict the end of the US Empire, which is to be welcomed, although that seems a way off and we wonder how many ordinary people will be lost as the Empire collapses.
LL
This article was originally published by The Chris Hedges Report on Fri 16 Jan 2026. Read the original here.
Grand Illusion
BiodeWe are cursed by what the historian Barbara Tuchman calls the “bellicose frivolity of senile empires.”
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I like almost everything Chris Hedges does but he sometimes misuses language, and here the word senile should be retired as offensive and outdated. I realise it was used by Barbara Tuchman (who died in 1989) but it should not be adopted without making this clear.
Two persons, both a bit idolized by me (and not just me) come to mind:
Frank Zappa and Noam Chomsky. Chomsky’s views on (USA) imperialism and why it has to come to a downfall, i assume are known, but here is an interesting and not so well known panel talk where in Zappa gives a pretty good description of today’s US.
https://youtu.be/fam5wRXcoQE?si=24QcwbpTPf-7Hih5