In his fictonal works The Winds of War and War and Remembrance written by author Herman Wouk, which take place in the years prior to World War 2 and which end at war's end, one of the leading characters, Dr. Aaron Jastrow, is a Polish Jew who emigrated to the United States as a teenager, during the turmoil of the aftermath of the First World War, and becomes a history professor at Yale, and subsequently an author whose writings center on his Jewish identity and the perspective that gives him as he observes world events leading up to the war.
He retires, and resides in Italy, initially writing about the Jewish origins of Christianity, and the sharp turn in history under the Roman Emperor Constantine, whose sudden conversion experience, including a vision that contradicts everything the Christian gospel taught, leading to the advancement of the institutional Christian church by political power which shaped European history and, according to Dr. Jastrow, two thousand years of anti-Semtism.
Wouk uses the character of Jastrow to introduce the concept of hegemony as an explanation for the suddent rise of European Fascism, in which, prior to the war beginning, is focused on Lenin and Stalin in Russia, lumped together with Mussolini and then, after some refinement and adjustment, Hitler, who sets out to conquer Europe, grabbing, in the fictional professors words, the hegemony.
Jastrow's character is written to take the more fatalistic position of the time, in the aftermath of war weariness from World War 1, that the dictators rise is due in part to Allied policy laying the blame for the war on Germany and demanding unreasonable reparations which kicked over European economies, leading to the Great Depression. Money is at the bottom of political upheaval, and Jastrow, in a political discussion, uses the phrase, "The hegemony can be shared, and it must be shared with the Soviets, at any rate," he says.
So when I look at the mutterings, rumblings and ramblings of Trump about Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, Mexico, my memory gets jogged, my historical interest is generated and I went back through Wouk's books and re-read both of them. Yes, they are works of fiction, but they're based on historical facts and his research providing accurate settings and insights of the politics of the time is an excellent way to learn about all of the political perspectives in play prior to and during World War 2. And much of what Trump says, not only wanting to take over sovereign nations, but in the motivation and reasoning he gives for doing so, he sounds exactly like the European Fascists did, prior to the war. He is just another politician hungry for money and the power it brings, trying to win the hegemony. His ego is the driving force, and we have Mary Trump and her books to confirm that.
We've Done This Before
Threats made to neighboring countries, and attempts to dominate them are not new in American history. There are some hints of it in the Monroe Doctrine, and grabbing a share of the hegemony was behind a lot of that rhetoric, especially as the rivalry between the United States and the European powers, especially Great Britain and Spain, and to a lesser degree France, had heated up after the American Revolution and then Napoleon's rampage.
Then there was the whole Texas Independence, Mexican War debacle, where pretenses led to grabbing most of what was then the northern third of Mexico, mainly because we could, and because there was also hegemony involved, mainly American economic interests and the aquisition of national wealth and power. We did it again against Spain, during another burst of attempted control and domination of Latin America.
If we're honest, the impression America's grab at the hegemony has left with those who had to endure it doesn't really look a whole lot different to the victims of it than Hitler's grab did to his victims. There's one big difference. The Germans, after being beaten to the ground, and their country bombed to ruins, seem to have learned their lesson, and have practiced what they learned over the course of the past seven decades. Most Americans know better, too, but the uptick in Facist, neo-Nazi ideology in this country that lies under the surface of support for Trump is behind the violence and hatred that is pushing this.
Hypocrisy That Knows No Bounds
Trump expected widespread jubilation and dancing in the streets when he extracted Maduro from Caracas, and brought him to the United States. A lot of Venezuelans did dance and celebrate, for a few minutes, until they learned that Maduro's hand picked Vice-President was in charge, and that absolutely nothing had changed except the direction of their oil tankers. Hegemony. The Venezuelans I know here, and because I'm in Chicago, I have gotten to know several, are taking a more "wait and see" attitude, not really seeing much of a difference between Maduro, and Trump, who is hunting them down and deporting them, some to prison in El Salvador, when ICE finds them.
And I'm frustrated, not surprised, at the blithering ignorance displayed in this country when it comes to these events. Maybe ignorance is a root cause of hypocrisy, or maybe it has become the trademark of a country in which the education system has failed miserably to provide basic instruction in history, poltics and government. It's pretty inconsistent and stupid, and I don't mind using that word, to cheer and support Trump's removal of Maduro, while his bootlicking, bowing and cuddling up to Kim Jong Un, a much more brutal dictator in North Korea, is still a fresh memory from his first term.
Why not send some helicopters, shock paratroopers and air support into Pyongyang, and extract the North Korean dictator, and try him alongside Maduro? Why not go after Putin,, for that matter, or Bashar al-Assad?
The last time the United States went to war to remove a dictator, Saddam Hussein, and simultaneously supported the rebels in Syria, it didn't turn out well. As a result, ISIS swelled up into the vacuum, capable of doing so because, in Syria, they were well financed by the Bush administration funneling money to them because of their opposition to al-Assad. Maduro's political faction is still solidly in control in Caracas, in spite of Trump's gaslighting, and that's not going to go well for the Venezuelanos who were celebrating his downfall.
Constitutional Failure
Here's what we have to ask ourselves at this point. How stupid has this country become? How ignorant are we, and how many Americans have absolutely no idea whatsoever what attacking or attempting to take over Greenland would mean? How many ignorant and stupid people do we have, that all of this rherotic spills out of the mouths of the Trump administration and it doesn't appear that Americans even know where Greenland is or why Trump wants it or why it would be totally unpatriotic and anti-American to be aggressive in demanding it come under our jurisdiction?
Somewhere, in our Constitution, the limits on Presidential authority exist for someone somewhere to tell Trump "NO!" and then countermand any orders to militarily occupy Greenland. The limits on Presidential authority have been there since this demagogue took office, but no one, especially among his oposition, seems to know what can be done, or they are too interested in feathering their own nests to do it.
The United States is now a predator among smaller, weaker nations, much smaller and much weaker, in a quest to gain the hegemony, which is Trump's life purpose, grab and grift for money. He's dragging our country, and its values, into the abyss of his own demented mind and disfunctional ego. And while we march, and protest, and complain, he keeps getting away with it and we keep letting him. We are now a threat to a world that we helped rebuild and turn toward our values following World War 2, simply because no one will do anything about the man who claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would do anything about it.
God help us.
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