OK, hear me out.

Siddown for this.

I want Trump to get the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, and I want Trump to stumble us into a war with China.

For too long, the elites of the wealthy western democracies have been only too willing accede to the wishes of American political and economic interests, even in the face of domestic resistance in the respective nations. One would have thought that Bush 2's "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" threat after 9/11 would have brought nations to reconsider aligning itself with the United States at least because it was exactly that – a threat, instead of an appeal to the world's better angels.

Now we have Trump threatening to move the United States out of this or that accord, again lacing its threat with insults, unjustified admonishments, and more threats. He lives out the stereotype of the ugly American and with all its characterological displays of arrogance, ignorance, self-regard, truculence, and bigotry.

Is it with this that the world must put up?

If Trump makes good on his "we're outta here" threats, this would be the equivalent of the boorish rube making a dramatic exit and leaving the adults free to act upon what they believe to be in their own collective interests. No longer the concern that the boorish rube might apply political or economic pressure to the others to disincline their genuine obligations and replace them with serving the interests of the boorish rube. No more enduring the boorish rube dragging his feet or, worse, scuttling the entire legitimate project that member interests have gathered together to pursue. With the boorish rube gone, maybe a few half-way ok things could get started.

Americans will pay dearly for their arrogance, and the down-payment will be being left off the green gravy train. Already we have left that project to the Germans and the Chinese. It won't end there.

Apropos of the above, this from a recent All Things Considered: http://www.npr.org/2017/...cessary-future-conflicts .

Why do I introduce this? Robert Seigel blithely asks author Graham Allison about how the rise of China is, in his words, "creating a fear in the United States that might, indeed, lead toward a war?" Neither Mr. Seigel nor Mr. Allison name anyone expressing this alleged "fear", nor do they cite any polling that backs up that un-backed-up claim that there is any such fear in the United States. We will ignore the issue as to whether China has any business asserting itself as a dominant power in its own region and doing so without seeking permission from the United States, and pursuing its own interests. Of course, I do have a problem with China colonizing Tibet, but we will ignore that too). China’s "rise" is to be read as America’s "decline" and as its ability to do what is our rightful job – giving orders to others. If that happens, not only will China not be as benign a steward over the earth (as WE certainly are) but its "rise" may come with an unthinkable cost: China (gasp!) may start telling the United States what to do!

The horror! The horror!

I don't know about you people but I smell me some good ol' fashioned "Yellow Peril" racism in that piece. But maybe I am just an oversensitive snowflake!

But back to Mr. Seigel and Mr. Allison: game that out, war with nuclear-armed China that is. Of this Mr. Seigel and guest speak with a casualness that is as horrifically pathological as is Trump’s blundering and dunderheaded boss-playing in Europe. It is almost certain that Trump does not listen to NPR, and so does not send tweets in reaction to its shows; but why should he have to if this is the kind of chilling stupidity that passes for serious punditry on America’s elite radio news show. This is "public broadcasting"? "The BradCast" it sure as shit ain’t!!

I bring this up because the problem is not Trump; it is American political culture. The mainstream embraces Trump (the popular vote notwithstanding and notwithstanding the pearl-clutching --- including my own --- over Trump's tacky and low-rent boorishness) and Mr. Seigel’s punditry because they both agree on one thing: the United States is "the Indispensable Nation" as described by Madeline Albright, and can do what it wants because its "interests" are above those of the world. Indeed, America is the world and the rest of humanity just lives in it at America’s sufferance. How different is Albright's line from Trump's resurrection of the notorious phrase "America First!"?

America can push the world around with the rude and absent-minded casualness of Trump's pushing aside the President of Montenegro. And it does so because it misreads its power to do so as its God-given right to do so.

The world needs to wean itself from America’s "leadership". Trump is the final proof of that.

And the sooner the better, for humanity.