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The Obama presidency was characterized by 8 years of going nowhere. Obama was little more than a photo-op with pretty speeches. Indeed, he had no moral compass, and no vision for what America could or should be. His 'goal', if one can call it that, was simply to be president. Once that was achieved, he was content to just float on the status quo. In a lot of ways, it was similar to the Clinton presidency, minus the semen-stained dress.

Then came Trumpaloni. A declinist's dream, one might argue, because his notion of saving America was in fact to mount an assault on it. He did a ton of damage, and we are still living in the fallout from that. He could well get reelected in 2024, and get us back on the straightforward collapse track.

What, then, can we say about poor Joe Schmiden? The guy certainly means well, but the drawbacks are obvious. First, he wants the US to recover its world hegemonic role, to be the global leader once again. I don't have to convince readers of this blog that such a goal is a fairy tale par excellence.

Beyond that, however, he has no coherent foreign policy; a fact that many political analysts have already commented on. Internationally speaking, the US is basically adrift.

On the domestic front, let me point to 3 things. First, Biden wants to fight Covid, and has done a fairly decent job (dramatically better than Trumpalumpi, quite obviously). Second, he seeks to promote diversity across the board. Which he has done to a large extent, but there is the question of whether this is window dressing, or real social change. Again, I think readers of this blog know the difference between shit and Shinola, even if Joe and the rest of America do not. Finally, Joe has FDR-type ambitions, which include massive spending on infrastructure and aid for families in need, taxing corporations, and perhaps a few other noble goals. All of this, however, is starting to look like it will be stuck in the mud. Which is not Joe's fault, but the Republicans are having none (or very little) of it, and they seem to be in a position to defeat these plans in the Senate. My prediction is that on the domestic front, deep structural changes are not in our future. As for various protest movements, I think we can already see that they have been about as effective as pussy hats. Across the nation, to take but one example, police departments have larger budgets than they did a year ago. So much for "defunding" the police. America will remain what it is, in other words, as it moves slowly but steadily along the path of social, political, cultural, and economic disintegration.

The difference between the Clinton/Obama/Biden mode of being, and that of Trumponi, is thus the velocity of our disintegration, nothing more. That we could switch to an entirely different trajectory is not an option; way too late for that. The choices are slow disintegration or rapid disintegration. The elections of 2022 and 2024 should clarify how things are going to play out.

Finally, it is not clear how the condition of the American people is going to figure in this drama. Nearly all of them have security as their first priority, and no admin, Dem or GOP, can guarantee that for them. A large percentage of the population, in consequence, doesn't care if we have a democracy or not; for them, that's neither here nor there. Most are angry, scared, desperate, disoriented, and above all--dumb as a bag of hammers. Fundamentally, Americans are a silly people, a frivolous people, with no goal beyond learning how to hustle better. Concepts such as "community" or "society" never cross their feeble minds. I can't say exactly how that will fit into the current disaster, but I am sure that it will, one way or another.

-mb