Empire as the Lens for Politics

I find that the concept of "empire" provides a meaningful context in which to view the current political scene.  In my view, the United States presides over a neoliberal empire whose tentacles encircle the globe.  China, Russia, Iran, N Korea, and a few other places stand outside the empire, while urban ghettos, war zones, and sparsely populated remote landscapes are loosely controlled areas on the fringes.  At the center of the empire in places such as Washington DC, vicious battles take place for power.  

While this may seem to be an unusual point of view, it seems to be to be typical when looking at historical empires.  Certainly the Roman Empire, for example, was engaged in continual warfare on the fringes, while intrigue and power struggles were common in the capital and other power centers.  The current political situation in the U.S. comes with the "territory" that we have carved out in becoming the world's primary superpower.

Within empires, there is an inherent tension between the control and expansion of the outer zones, and the care and nurturing of the heartland.  Thus, in the U.S. today, Trump has come to power as the politician who wants to focus on the heartland, as opposed to spending resources consolidating and extending gains in far away places.  Biden is the candidate of the most powerful forces of the empire who are determined to keep the empire strong not only at home, but around the world.  The empire's success depends upon people of different ethnicities working together.  Thus, Biden represents the forces promoting diversity, as opposed to Trump's focus on the traditional ethnic heartland.

Two factors strike me as interesting in this context:

1. The emergence of identity politics as a thorn in the side (cancer?) of the empire.
2. The association of empire foreign enemy Putin with empire domestic enemy Trump.  

The U.S. empire is built on the foundation of the western European enlightenment along with the industrial revolution.  Identity politics, as now embodied via Black Lives Matter, has become an enormous distraction to the establishment.  Originally deployed by the empire in the service of diversity and against the Trumpian forces opposed to empire, BLM has spun out of control and now promotes ethnic hatred.  The empire, led by Biden, still supports BLM but is rapidly losing credibility as BLM undermines the enlightment / capitalist ideological and practical foundations of the empire.  The empire no doubt hopes that sidelining Trump will defuse the more radical aspects of the BLM movement, but it is unclear to me how this might play out in college campuses and Democratic politics.  Until race, and other identity characteristics including gender, sexual orientation, and religious background, are diffused as animating forces at the heart of the empire, the forces of instability will remain potent.  The empire has been playing with fire in playing the race card against Trump and his supporters.

Closely related to these identity politics is the association of Trump with Putin as regressive agents of evil.  Putin has successfully pulled Russia away from the sphere of influence of the U.S. neoliberal empire, and so is a natural enemy of the U.S. empire.  In demonizing Putin, agents of the U.S. empire including both mainstream Republicans and Democrats, have associated Putin with the anti-empire forces at home, who are currently led by Trump.  This reinforces the BLM / identity politics narrative against regressive patriarchal politics.  Radicals who question the foundations of the empire, as established by white men, are aligned with those who seek to spread and strengthen this empire (e.g. neocons).  

The heart of the matter is the extent to which the old cultural order must be overturned.  Is Putin doomed to failure as an old white man clinging to his guns and old school conservative culture?  Or has the west  moved too quickly to invalidate traditions that ungird the empire?  In my view, Putin has the stronger position in this debate.  He has moved, in something of a Trump like fashion, to bolster traditional values,  He enjoys great domestic popularity as his rule has been accompanied by greatly increased stability in the newly downsized Russian empire.  He needn't worry so much about identity politics because:

• Russia does not have a legacy of black slavery
• Seventy years of Communist rule in Russia shattered many of the traditions related to gender identity and religious background.  So Putin's Russia is not that of the old patriarchal school.

Putin is, in a sense, consolidating Russian society following revolutionary cultural changes that were enforced via Communist dictatorship.  Much the same is taking place in China.

The U.S. led empire, on the other hand, is so diverse that cultural upheavals leave us with much more of a struggle to consolidate society.  The neoliberal empire is founded on the twin ideals of European enlightenment and capitalist / technological expansion.  The enlightenment principles are faltering in the face of the race card, for example, which has been played to control the MAGA faction.  The capitalist / technological imperative has been undercut by the outsourcing of vital economic activity to fire flung allies and enemies (China) alike.

So even as the empire lashes out at Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, N Korea, etc. (we have sanctions on countries representing one fourth of the world's population), the world increasingly rejects the sole superpower.  Wars in the Middle East have failed to extend the empire to that region.  Both Russia and China openly defy the empire and provide support and hope for other outcasts such as Iran and Venezuela.  Most strikingly, the U.S. is losing its allure as the shining city of the hill, a beacon of prosperity and peace in a troubled world.  Rioting has spread across the country, while immigration is restricted in the face of both Trumpism and pandemic control.  The American dream is being assaulted, and thus our appeal to would be immigrants is diminished.  Universities are hobbled by politics, as are international corporations.  Financialism has run amok and a crash is a near certainty, which will exacerbate these trends.

Still, perhaps a majority of voting Americans believes that getting rid of Trump will somehow turn things around.  Blacks will be happy to see the face of historic racism (MAGA) unceremoniously booted from power.  Immigrants will once again feel welcome.  Universities will feel less need to consciously intervene to protect minorities.  Foreign affairs will once again become more reasonable and amenable to international diplomacy.  These things are all true.

Yet the problem with empires is that entrenched interests get in the way.  The military industrial complex will still be around, as will the health care vested interests, and the diversity administrators at universities.  Domestic labor will still resent the outsourcing of jobs around the globe.  Countries on the fringe of empire will begin to demand autonomy commensurate with their increased productivity vis a vis the empire's homeland.  Cultural resentments that led to Trump will continue unabated. 

In other words, the internal contradictions of the empire will continue beyond Trump in the direction of instability.  Just as Trump resolved nothing, getting rid of him will resolve nothing.  Or, more optimistically, the election of Trump and potential removal of Trump may be steps in the direction of a new world order that is not centered on the United States.  In this best case scenario, we are freed from American exceptionalism and come to terms with the common humanity with share with others in the world regardless of race, creed, or nationality.