Lhe tempo is accelerating and one can only be struck by the automatisms of thought in which we fall when it comes to qualifying contemporary America. To take only two examples: that of imperialism on the one hand, and on the other hand that of “Happy vassalization” – imagined by the review The great continentThen taken over by Emmanuel Macron during his state trip to Portugal to enjoin Europe not to resign itself. These notions, as attractive and mobilizing as they are, are not fully adapted to the situation. To understand, beyond Trump, this American moment, it may be better to return to simple and effective concepts, anchored in American history and imagination.
The idea of vassalization borrows from a European medieval vocabulary which has no connection with American political culture. The Americans, like Trump himself, ignore everything about the feudal concepts of vassalage and suzerainty. These concepts, from a Europe of a thousand years ago, fragmented and hierarchical, do not make it possible to grasp the reality of an America whose modern history begins two and a half centuries ago, based on republican ideals, a territorial expansion and a universalist vision of freedom. Trump makes “Deals” – We do not “deale” with his vassal – he does not think in terms of vassalage.
As for imperialism, it turns out to be just as inadequate. The current United States does not project itself into an infinite extension, do not seek the assimilation of culturally distant populations, and the military conquest is clearly no longer their main objective. Neither imperialism nor Cesarism, and even less the “Techno-Césarism”constitute relevant analysis frameworks.
The “Trump moment”, beyond the personality of the president and his particular style, reveals, I believe, something more structural in the United States, an element that manifests itself in many areas and whose expression by Trump explains part of his electoral success. The United States has always had a fundamental problem with the idea of limit, and it is precisely this node that is reactivated in Trump with a particular intensity.
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