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by JohnBooty 3434 days ago

    imperialist militaristic foreign policies abroad,
This didn't exactly happen in a vacuum. A country can't be a major power without trying to gain influence throughout the world; all of the other major powers are doing it too.

Of course, it's also possible to renounce the game of global influence entirely. But be careful what you wish for.

Because that's what we've chosen with Trump: building literal and figurative walls around the country. Apparently we are planning to... isolate ourselves back to greatness?

Perhaps in some ideal world we could be "noble isolationists" and close our borders, eyes, and ears to the world without a populist thirst for xenophobia and racism, secure in the knowledge that other global powers will shape the world (or perhaps become noble isolationists themselves?) for the better in our absence.

I wish I shared that fantasy; it's a particularly nice one.

The United States' meddling in world affairs has ranged from "helpful" to "disastrous." But it's absolute madness to think that others will not attempt to assert control in the power vacuum we're leaving behind. Do you really think Russia will be better for the world than us? Maybe you should ask Ukraine about that one.

    There's a lot not to like about Donald Trump, but for one thing he 
    is an outsider to the established system (I believe in this because 
    of how hard the mainstream media is bent on pulling him down). It 
    is hard for me to see that as anything but an improvement.
A literal billionaire with a cabinet of millionaires and billionaires is now an "outsider." What is wrong with you?

I understand that they are "outsiders" in the sense that they have no experience running any form of government whatsoever.

But these people are not outsiders to the system. They have profited from the system to a degree the average American cannot fathom. They literally are the system.