The America-First Era Begins

By the early 5th century, the Roman Empire was in decline. Much of its territory had been lost, its monetary system was being debased, and the political system had devolved into chaos.

In 452 AD a massive barbarian force led by Attila the Hun had pillaged Europe and was now inside the core of the empire.

It didn’t seem like Roman forces would be able to stop them.

Emperor Valentinian III sent the Pope to negotiate with Attila the Hun. Somehow, it worked (tons of gold were likely exchanged).

Although they avoided immediate destruction, things went poorly for the Roman Empire from here. Invasions, inflation, and loss of territory were the key themes.

Not Like Rome

The old U.S. Empire is on wobbly legs. But I don’t believe America will follow the Roman path as our dominion fades.

For one, we have the great equalizer: nuclear weapons. There will be no more world wars. No invasions of U.S. territory.

Conflicts, if they happen, will be proxy wars like we saw in Ukraine. Deadly and horrific, but nothing on the scale of WW1 or WW2. Nuclear weapons exclude that as a possibility.

And hopefully Trump will be able to end the majority of proxy wars in the world, forging a lasting peace with other world powers. All of a sudden it’s actually possible.

By now we all know that America’s “nation-building” efforts in the Middle East and beyond have been an absolute disaster. Real costs of the “war on terror” and other ridiculous endeavors have soared to more than $10 trillion.

We can no longer afford to maintain 800+ military bases around the world. And that’s going to be a very positive development.

U.S. Leaders Acknowledge the Shift

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made it clear that the unipolar era (America as the lone superpower) is over. Here he is in a recent interview with Megyn Kelly:

So it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet.

It seems that Rubio the neocon hawk has been replaced by a multipolar body double. Either that, or a major shift is underway in geopolitics.

And just this week VP Vance shocked the world while discussing the Ukraine War.

Russians have a massive numerical advantage in manpower and weapons in Ukraine, and that advantage will persist regardless of further Western aid packages.

This is a strange place to negotiate from, but Vance is correct. Biden and NATO essentially drained Western weapon stockpiles dry attempting to prop up Ukraine in a pointless war.

We lack the industrial capacity to support one major proxy war, let alone two or more. The idea that we’re going to fight China and Russia is a delusional neocon fever dream.

The unipolar world is over. Something else entirely will take its place…

America First in a Multipolar World

This will not be like the fall of Rome. Ideally it will be the beginning of the America First era. A time where we stop policing and conquering the world, and focus on domestic issues.

Now, to be clear, there are a few trappings of empire that we’re not yet ready to let go of. Trump may well attempt to seize the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Gaza. But there’s still hope these issues can be resolved diplomatically.

I hope these exceptions will be extremely limited in scope.

It is time to focus on improving the situation at home. Rebuilding domestic manufacturing and creating jobs. Boosting drilling, mining, and pipelines. Slashing waste and fraud. We need all our focus on these issues.

If we continue along this path, it could actually be the beginning of a golden era. There will be hard parts, no doubt. Change of this magnitude is never easy.

But I think even the swampiest deep state operators now realize its inevitability.

Our leaders have essentially acknowledged the end of the old American Empire.

Long live the America First era.