Since the process of colonization and conquest of the territories that today are the United States (US), it has promoted the idea of the land of plenty and of opportunity. Millions of people migrated to those lands with the dream of getting rich quickly. The rise and consolidation of the U.S. as a world hegemonic power occurred some time later. Barely a century ago. The two world wars and the economic crisis of 1929 were the context and part of the reasons for its rise. With its military and economic power, with its cultural enterprise, and by making its currency the global currency, it managed to prevail over the fascist option for managing capitalism. During almost the entire 20th century, it also competed for global hegemony against the socialist alternative until decreeing, at least for a time, a unipolar world.
In the process of establishing itself first as a nation and then as a superpower, the US claimed to uphold the most accepted ideals and values of modernity: democracy, progress, civilization, human rights, and freedom of expression. In the battle for space and in sports, it was also at the forefront. The land of freedom built consensus in order to protect the world, even by creating institutions: its economic power, its technological and military capacity, as well as its cultural industry were the pillars of this protection. In reality, internally and internationally, its power was built on the extermination of local populations, slavery, the repression of internal political dissidence, the colonization and invasion of territories beyond its borders, the financing, support or execution of coups d’état, the fabrication of conflicts, and countless crimes and barbarities.
In the name of freedom, democracy and human rights, the US initiated wars and coups d’état that in reality were imperial and colonial wars. American expansionism, dropping napalm bombs on Vietnam, or devastating Iraq under the pretext of combating terrorism, are images that the world should not forget; nor should it forget that this empire is not invincible: the victory of the Cuban people at Playa Giron is an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist emblem.
The arrival of Trump and his allies to power in the US, and all that they represent, marks the end of an era: the end of its hegemony. Distancing themselves from the discourse and values that sustained the country, they now appear in their worst version: the neo-fascist option for the management of capitalism. The land of abundance and opportunities to which millions of migrants arrived becomes the land denied, with walls and military preventing free passage. The country that boasted to be the land of human rights, becomes the land of live-streamed raids, the land of hunting the other, those who are different. The supposed land of freedom becomes the country of chains and shackles. The country that just a few decades ago claimed to be the paradigm of non-discrimination and where neoliberal multiculturalism brought an Afro-descendant to the presidency, today exalts its racism and xenophobia. The heart of the cultural production industry that seduced millions around the world shows its most conservative and anti-scientific side, denying climate change, vaccines and sex-gender diversity. Aware that the world today is multipolar, it is putting pressure on its former allies to confront its competitors. It is strengthening its actions in its zone of influence, Latin America, to discipline it and distance it from China and Russia. It is too late: the Asian giant has entered into every corner of the world.
In its crises of hegemony, the empire shows its true face. The ruling classes could not react in any other way: spreading fear, trying to sustain themselves by generating terror. The plutocracy aligns itself and pushes other countries to take the same path, such as Elon Musk supporting the extreme right in Germany. It remains to be seen how much of what the new government says is bluff and how much is reality, but we must not fail to see that even this bluff alters common sense, that which Trump himself promised to challenge in his inauguration speech.
The crisis of US hegemony has caused it to show its true face: what it always has been and wanted to hide. This crisis is a preamble to the dark scenarios we are about to witness. The rise of the new extreme right-wingers all over the world also opens up the possibility of the intensification of inter-imperialist wars. In this scenario, the anti-capitalist forces are called to open horizons of possibility. Mexico and Latin America will play a central role in the resistance and in the creation of alternatives. It is time to believe and create the future today.
*Sociologist
Original article by Raúl Romero published in La Jornada on February 3rd, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.