Trump elected as President – risks and opportunities

 The Saker

So it has happened: Hillary did not win!  I say that instead of saying that
“Trump won” because I consider the former even more important than the latter. 
Why?  Because I have no idea whatsoever what Trump will do next.  I do, however,
have an excellent idea of what Hillary would have done: war with Russia.  Trump
most likely won’t do that.  In fact, he specifically said in his acceptance
speech:

I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s
interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people
and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership,
not conflict.
And Putin’s reply was immediate:

We heard the statements he made as candidate for president expressing a desire
to restore relations between our countries. We realise and understand that this
will not be an easy road given the level to which our relations have degraded
today, regrettably. But, as I have said before, it is not Russia’s fault that
our relations with the United States have reached this point.
Russia is ready to and seeks a return to full-format relations with the United
States. Let me say again, we know that this will not be easy, but are ready to
take this road, take steps on our side and do all we can to set Russian-US
relations back on a stable development track.
This would benefit both the Russian and American peoples and would have a
positive impact on the general climate in international affairs, given the
particular responsibility that Russia and the US share for maintaining global
stability and security.
This exchange, right there, is enough of a reason for the entire planet to
rejoice at the defeat of Hillary and the victory of Trump.
Will Trump now have the courage, willpower and intelligence to purge the US
Executive from the Neocon cabal which has been infiltrating it for decades now? 
Will he have the strength to confront an extremely hostile Congress and media? 
Or will he try to meet them halfway and naively hope that they will not use
their power, money and influence to sabotage his presidency?
I don’t know.  Nobody does.
One of the first signs to look for will be the names and backgrounds of the
folks he will appoint in his new administration.  Especially his Chief of Staff
and Secretary of State.
I have always said that the choice for the lesser evil is morally wrong and
pragmatically misguided.  I still believe that.  In this case, however, the
greater evil was thermonuclear war with Russia and the lesser evil just might
turn out to be one which will gradually give up the Empire to save the USA
rather than sacrifice the USA for the needs of the Empire.  In the case of
Hillary vs Trump the choice was simple: war or peace.
Trump can already be credited with am immense achievement: his campaign has
forced the US corporate media to show its true face – the face of an evil,
lying, morally corrupt propaganda machine.   The American people by their vote
have rewarded their media with a gigantic “f*ck you!” – a vote of no-confidence
and total rejection which will forever demolish the credibility of the Empire’s
propaganda machine.
I am not so naive as to not realize that billionaire Donald Trump is also one of
the 1%ers, a pure product of the US oligarchy.  But neither am I so ignorant of
history to forget that elites do turn on each other, especially when their
regime is threatened.  Do I need to remind anybody that Putin also came from the
Soviet elites?!
Ideally, the next step would be for Trump and Putin to meet, with all their key
ministers, in a long, Camp David like week of negotiations in which everything,
every outstanding dispute, should be put on the table and a compromise sought in
each case.  Paradoxically, this could be rather easy: the crisis in Europe is
entirely artificial, the war in Syria has an absolutely obvious solution, and
the international order can easily accommodate a United States which would “deal
fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations” and
“seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict“.  The truth is
that the USA and Russia have no objective reasons for conflict – only
ideological issues resulting directly from the insane ideology of messianic
imperialism of those who believe, or pretend to believe, that the USA is an
“indispensable nation”. What the world wants – needs – is the USA as a *normal*
nation.
The worst case?  Trump could turn out to be a total fraud.  I personally very
much doubt it, but I admit that this is possible.  More likely is that he just
won’t have the foresight and courage to crush the Neocons and that he will try
to placate them.  If he does so, they will instead crush him.  It is a fact that
while administrations have changed every 4 or 8 years, the regime in power has
not, and that US internal and foreign policies have been amazingly consistent
since the end of WWII.  Will Trump finally bring not just a new administration
but real “regime change”?  I don’t know.
Make no mistake – even if Trump does end up disappointing those who believed in
him what happened today has dealt a death blow to the Empire.  The “Occupy Wall
Street” did not succeed in achieving anything tangible, but the notion of “rule
of the 1%” did emerge from that movement and it stayed.  This is a direct blow
to the credibility and legitimacy of the entire socio-political order of the
USA: far from being a democracy, it is a plutocracy/oligarchy – everybody pretty
much accepts that today.  Likewise, the election of Trump has already proved
that the US media is a prostitute and that the majority of the American people
hate their ruling class.  Again, this is a direct blow to the credibility and
legitimacy of the entire socio-political order.  One by one the founding myths
of the US Empire are crashing down and what remains is a system which can only
rule by force.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn used to say that regimes can be measured on a spectrum
which ranges from regimes whose authority is their power and regimes whose power
in in their authority.  In the case of the USA we now clearly can see that the
regime has no other authority than its power and that makes it both illegitimate
and unsustainable.
Finally, whether the US elites can accept this or not, the US Empire is coming
to an end.  With Hillary, we would have had a Titanic-like denial up to the last
moment which might well have come in the shape of a thermonuclear mushroom over
Washington DC.  Trump, however, might use the remaining power of the USA to
negotiate the US global draw-down thereby getting the best possible conditions
for his country.  Frankly, I am pretty sure that all the key world leaders
realize that it is in their interest to make as many (reasonable) concessions to
Trump as possible and work with him, rather than to deal with the people whom he
just removed from power.
If Trump can stick to his campaign promises he will find solid and reliable
partners in Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.  Neither Russia nor China have
anything at all to gain from a confrontation or, even less so, a conflict with
the USA.  Will Trump have the wisdom to realize this and use it for the benefit
of the USA?  Or will he continue with his anti-Chinese and anti-Iranian
rhetoric?
Only time will tell.
In
THE SAKER
http://thesaker.is/trump-elected-as-president-risks-and-opportunities/
November 9, 2016.