America and the (G) Seven Dwarfs

American Spectator ^ | June 2, 2017 | Angelo Codevilla

[Twotone]

The latest meeting of what had been the world’s seven major economic powers left no doubt that the United States of America is far more than the foremost among them, and that longstanding differences between them continue to widen. The latest set of reasons for that widening stem from the different ways in which the peoples of Europe and America (and Japan as well) have been reacting to a generation of malfeasance by their transnational ruling class.

From Warsaw westward to Tokyo, voters are pushing back against political-economic arrangements that, they believe, have been disenfranchising them, demanding the loosening of ties to multilateral arrangements as well as radical changes in leadership. In 2016 the U.S. constitutional system proved more responsive than others to this disaffection. Though this has not resulted in anything approaching, or even initiating changes in the way Americans are being governed, never mind a turnover of the ruling class, and although President Donald Trump who is by no means universally popular in America has not departed substantially from his immediate predecessors’ foreign policies, the 2016 election signaled unmistakably that the American people very much want such a departure.