The best thing for amercia to be great again is a new president who doesn't fuck up all foreign relations and trade.
Sounds like you want a completely isolationist trade policy. How has that worked out for the US in the past? The only way to never pay another country to arm themselves against us or any other country is to never give them money, and unless we force them at gunpoint to give us what we want that is not going to happen.
> "we pay for the defense of people who won't pay to defend themselves"
The EU doesn't spend 0% on defense. Many of them are NATO members who are increasing their spending and who have demonstrated that they'll follow us into war after we are attacked (Afghanistan as an example). The US gets far more in soft power/geopolitical benefits out of our European allies and NATO members than we put in.
No. You made this up.
>The EU doesn't spend 0% on defense.
They don't spend their full NATO commitments. And they are only increasing their spending because the current POTUS is bullying them into it.
>soft power/geopolitical benefits
People love talking about this but hard power is better.
Did something change? Nearly all of the EU allies in NATO were expected to hit the 2% commitment last year.
And then there's countries like Poland that spend more than the US as a percentage of GDP.
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2024/6/pd...
> No. You made this up.
Okay - then square the circle for me. How do we buy things that China makes and be 100% sure none of that money goes to buying weapons to be used against us? Extend that to every business we deal with outside the US. The only way to get to the point where we're not know for sure that we no longer "pay for people to arm themselves against us" is to never trade with them.
Some do and some don’t. EU is not one country. But in general it’s a bit strange that we didn’t start increase spending already around 2014.
If a good chunk of the world turns against the US, such that they refuse to consume our goods and services, then Americans will not be able to continue to enjoy their current standard of living.
This is why "soft power" matters, and it's why would-be contenders such as China have invested as heavily as they have in building up their soft power in LatAm, Africa, and elsewhere.
So yes, enjoy your "hard power," but you'll probably be poor.
China is plenty capable of competing with us in a high-intensity conflict, especially regionally, but also in space, and they can even hurt us in the home front, if we're being perfectly honest.
Sure, the US might ultimately "prevail" such a conflict, but it's not a conflict US war planners or anybody with a clear picture of the situation is in any hurry to jump into.
You should pray that such a war never comes to pass, because it won't be pretty for any side, and has the potential to be especially dicey for the US if domestic politics are as inflamed as they are today.
Learn history :)
I think most European countries cut down too much on the defence after the Cold War, but it seems we are about to fix that. But it’s not like the US gave away fighter jets and other weapon systems for free. Several European countries spent lots of money buying US planes and other stuff.
Luckily!
> And Europe has an obligation to spend on its own defense
Yes, since the US wants to pivot to Asia. That's fairly recent on the timescale :)
> which they have not fulfilled in some time
Did you know the US, unlike the others, includes pensions as "military spending"? But yeah, now ... They will raise it to the required 2 % (which a lot already do)
Any alterations that overrule the will of the majority, makes it not a democracy anymore, and you don't want that since that opens a can of worms that can always be used to also override your decision next time.
Which is why the world is never going to view or deal with the US the same way they did before. The current administration and its actions represent the will of the American people; represents their world view, their desires.
Also, the President is not a King, so just because people voted for him it doesn't mean opposition ceases to exist. Opposition and push-back to executive policy been a mainstay of US politics. It's been true of Democratic Presidents (e.g., federal courts blocking Biden's policies), and it remains true of the current President.
If you look at the approval rating for democrats and republicans, as reported by CNN this week, that disagrees with you. People who voted for Trump seem to be happy with what he's doing.
https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-sil...
And when unwanted war became possble in EU came USA ended up allying itself with Russia while trying to extort the victim country for minerals. It did helped initially, but it did not lasted and USA turned into a bully.
All the while threatening annexation of parts of EU and Canada.
Regular reminder that Germany has given Russia more money (for gas) than they have given to protect Ukraine.
Russia expansion is threatening Europe, not just Ukraine. You know it, I know it. And USA is about to help them.
Ukraine was stupid to give up nukes, they should never trust promises about help in case of attack. They should keep the atomic bombs, but it is too late for that.
It's bizarre and frankly racist to think that that illustrates some immutable property of Germany and Japan rather than forces that can materialize in any country.
I've met some lovely, kind, and outward looking people in my time here, but I'd have to be as blind as a bat to miss the dark undertones running through society. If the Americans didn't have their bases here I think we'd be back to a pre end of WW2 Japan quite quickly.
I don’t consider it to be at all likely to happen, but there’s a much better chance of Germany going to war against the world than there is for virtually every other country. Feel free to ignore history, I’m not going to.