George Packer's Liberal Imagination

"The Short American Century, which began in 1945 and continued until 2016, was made up of four distinct eras. The first, from the victory in World War II until the student rebellions of 1968, was an era of confidence in which most Americans believed that the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan provided just cause for the United States' domination of the "free world.""

"Donald Trump's election in 2016 put the kibosh on the widespread consensus that the United States was a New Rome, able to weather any domestic or international crisis. It turned out that the Great Recession and the Global War on Terror had undermined both American society and the "liberal international order," and that the faith in eternal US domination had been misplaced."

"In retrospect, it is clear that the populist rage that fueled Trump's rise marked the end of the Short American Century. But for many liberals, it took quite a while to accept this new reality. Liberals spent much of Trump's first term trying to explain his victory as an aberration, the consequence of the anti-majoritarian structure of American politics, or Russian interference."

The Short American Century comprised four distinct periods reflecting America's changing relationship with global power. The first era, from 1945 to 1968, embodied confidence in American victory and leadership of the free world. The second era, lasting until 1981, introduced skepticism as Fordism failed domestically and Vietnam War costs mounted. The 1980s brought exuberance through deregulation and renewed militarism. The final era, from the Berlin Wall's fall onward, exhibited hubris about democratic-capitalist triumph. Trump's 2016 election fundamentally disrupted this narrative, revealing that the Great Recession and Global War on Terror had weakened both American society and the liberal international order. Many liberals initially resisted accepting this reality, attributing Trump's victory to aberrations rather than systemic decline.

Read at The Nation