East-West versus North-South right now in US

Time for an Americanist Manifesto

Jim and Sara Nuttle illustration from “America’s New Map”

The key theme of my book is that world-restructuring dynamics are transforming the global order from one in which East-West dynamics have long reigned to one in which North-South dynamics predominate. We are witnessing that shift in real time in this presidential election season.

Biden, the responsible Cold Warrior, seeks to stand-up to, and manage, Russia over its Ukraine invasion, Israel, over its Gaza invasion, and China, over its threatened Taiwan invasion. As I have noted throughout, these are all leftovers from the post-WWII global reordering and/or the end of the Cold War. America isn’t eager to deal with any of them, even as our national security establishment is clearly jacked about the Taiwan scenario.

Meanwhile, back in a US that is doing quite well economically, Biden is clearly taking a political hit for the border crisis. Yes, there is understanding of external drivers, and yes, it is logical to hold POTUS as first-among-equals in the blame game, but, it is interesting that, in a time of economic advance, we spot zero rally-around-the-flag sentiment regarding Biden’s attempts to manage/prevent these conflicts abroad.

We can reflexively blame political polarization, but I think it is bigger than that.