The final collapse of the United States started last week, writes Frans Verhagen in an editorial for the
NRC Handelsblad a Dutch Newspaper - the editorial of Verhagen below is a Google translation in English of the original report in the Dutch language. .
"A foreign policy can not exist without a stable interior".
The self-destruction of America became visible in full. The Republican Party chased a tax law with literally unimaginable consequences; the Russia investigation approached the president; America's foreign policy was incredibly chaotic. It is not a pleasant spectacle, this end of a world power.
We can start with the confession of Michael Flynn , Trumps former safety advisor, that he had lied to the FBI. Flynn now says that in December 2016 he contacted the Russians on behalf of the staff of president-elect . For example, the investigation is approaching Trump's close advisors and possibly the president himself.
The president added to his problems by tweeting that he had dismissed Flynn for lying to the FBI, while he had hinted to lie to Vice President Pence until then. It makes Trump vulnerable, because the next day he asked the later dismissed FBI director Comey to stop his research on Flynn's activities, while he knew, in his own words, that Flynn had committed a criminal offense. Such action would be considered an "impediment to justice" and also raises the question why Trump, who is not known for his loyalty, did so much to keep Flynn out of the wind.
Also read: in the US a creepy financial problem is growing .
Trumps legal team sought the flight forward by proclaiming that presidents can not commit 'legal obstruction' because they are the highest executive, no reasoning heard since Richard Nixon. Trump took it a step further by calling the FBI to investigate a worthless, poorly run institution. His cackling is nonsensical as always, but the problem is that Trumps's allegations in the repetition gain strength, even among Americans who should know better.
The chaos in American foreign policy caused new lows this week. We were still recovering from the retweeted anti-Muslim mud from Great Britain and the Netherlands with which Trump underlined his white supremacy instincts. He got licked on Theresa May's piece, which he typically reacted rude to . The Netherlands chatted about the incorrect information in one of his tweet, to which Trump's spokesperson stated that what really happened is not important if the message comes across. Here speaks your world leader.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Rex Tillerson arrived on Monday for consultations in Brussels as tipsy game . For months, President Trump has shown his dissatisfaction with Tillerson, undermining his authority. The US Department of State is a mess from which career diplomats are fleeing, frustrated and ashamed. Last week, sources in the White House leaked that CIA director Mike Pompeo would replace Tillerson
All those involved denied, but Tillerson's departure is a matter of time. In Brussels no one knew what you had to Tillerson or, in a broader sense, to the United States.
Pompeo would bring Foreign Affairs closer to the White House, but would create new uncertainties in foreign policy. He is an advocate of confrontation with Iran and sought arguments from the CIA to torpedo nuclear agreements with Iran. Trump has pushed the future of the deal with Iran to Congress.
Pompeo will not make an effort to keep that deal afloat. If the Trump government fails to comply with the agreements, then a military confrontation threatens. North Korea's most recent missile launch also puts that game back on track, although the balance of deterrence guarantees some stability there.
Last Wednesday, November 6, Trump announced the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem , postponed for years to avoid a possible peace process. America has now definitively handed over its role in that process , which, in view of the current positions, does not make much difference. Relations with the Muslim world are not getting any better.
The obvious question is
can Jared Kushner still work on peace between Israel and Palestine ?
Future foreign policy, however, suffers most from the disastrous tax law that undermines any possibility of unifying America - necessary for a widely supported foreign policy. With this, the Republican Party realized its main program points: low taxes and a small government, while the foundation was obscured under Obamacare. Now Trump was right when he called it a historical law.
This 'tax reform' sets the United States on a path that fundamentally undermines the country. By deconstructing the finances of the government over the next ten years, he deprives Congress and a subsequent president of every possibility of decisive policy. The fact that these tax measures will actually increase government income is a reasoning that is belied by the facts in the past and is not shared by virtually any economist. This was not the success of the populist and his angry voters, let alone of rioters like Steve Bannon.
This was the success of the Republican Party, which is now the prisoner of big donors and shamelessly defends the interests of the rich and powerful. This tax law does what the anti-government activist Grover Norquist did as an ideal years ago, making the government so small that he can be drowned in a bathtub. It sounds dramatic and dramatic: the American government has turned around last week. There is no room for policy anymore.
It happened with staggering cynicism and shameless lying. No Republican was talking about government deficits, the opponents of stimulus policy during the 2009 crisis were not heard.
Independent information was burned down, special rules registered with pencil. Politicians known as the "conscience" of the Republican Party, such as John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Susan Collins, effortlessly rallied behind this monster. Senator Orrin Hatch had the guts to state after assuming this law that, sadly, unfortunately, there was no money for the health insurance of nine million children who ended in September.
And it all started when grabbing greed imposed his will on the rest of America
The paralyzing polarization in the United States has many reasons and both parties are blamed for that problem. But the awful Dutch expression 'the truth is in the middle' gives a misleading picture here. It is the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, who is destroying America.
This is the party of the blessed Ronald Reagan, the man who made good sense with the institution that the biggest problem that an American could experience, was that someone from the government knocked on the door with the message 'I come to help'. It went like a cake, but the anti-government message was the actual problem, as arrogant Texans, accommodating residents of Florida and poor soul's feet in Puerto Rico are now experiencing themselves.
Since the Republicans conquered the House of Representatives under the political pyromant Newt Gingrich in 1994, the Republicans have literally created nothing constructive. Now they harvest and it is a bitter harvest. This sad country, with collapsing bridges, broken roads, a devastating drug crisis, uninhabitable expensive cities, millions of uninsured, miserable public education, now receives a package of tax vehicles for investors, benefits for the highest incomes, untaxed wealth transfer and an arsenal of subsidies for business interests . This sad country is the product of so-called conservative thinking that has been in the grip since the 1980s. America no longer has any cohesion, it can only fall apart.
The President of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, complaining complacently after the tax success, underlined the moral bankruptcy of the Republicans by joining Senate candidate Roy Moore after weeks of painful indignation, who is accused of unseemly relations with schoolgirls. For this pragmatic oil man, the standards are stretchable and flexible: everything needed to make the Republican agenda go through. Moore is welcome, he will be okay with Trump.
If we underestimate the foreign consequences of these developments, we will fool ourselves. A country with a permanent domestic crisis, with a society in which the rich have a lacquer on the rest, and the middle class and poor are only objects of concern, will not be able to play a dominant role in the world, not even with all military means that are prepared. can be financed. A foreign policy can not exist without a stable interior.
President Trump is a jack, the leaders of the Republican Party are the smart ones. Until now, I could have thought that Trump was not so much a passing phenomenon, but at least could not bring anything. I could conceive the illusion that there were Republican politicians who did not want to subordinate the country's interests to their donors, enough politicians at least to block the worst possible development. I was naïve.
Listen to episode 44 of our Presidential Podcast: Uncle Sam has become a two-face , about the confession of Flynn and the new tax law.
Certainly, the Democrats can win at the midterm elections in 2018, and perhaps at the presidential elections in 2020. But there is no guarantee that they will come with a more inclusive policy and even then America will be further eroded. The changes now made are difficult to undo, unless there really is a crisis of thirties proportions. However, it is to be feared that there will soon be a crisis in slow motion that is only recognized when it is too late.
We may be concerned about North Korea and the chance of a confrontation with Iran, but the real disaster occurred last week inland. The Republican Party has pinned policy for years on a track that can only lead to destruction. If we look back later, we can determine very precisely where the final demise of the United States began: when short-sighted, greedy greed imposed its will on the rest of America.
From a Dutch Editorial in the NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) by Frans Verhagen 
