By Koo Lap

Biden’s taking office as the 46th President of the United States. 25,000 National Guard troops stationed in Washington D.C. to prevent a repeat of the January 6 Capitol Hill riots. Even when the Pentagon of the Ministry of Defense was attacked on September 11, it had never been seen such a scenario. It is clear that the pro-establishment camp is using this to discredit Trump, who was accused of inciting the riot. Biden will call on the People to unite in the fight against the pandemic, create harmony, and rebuild the economy. They are all good calls, but how to attain these lofty goals will be another story. It is already a build-up towards failure. Ignoring that nearly half of the American voters are loyal Trump supporters, Biden’s high-profile support for the Congress’ impeach will only intensify the societal tear, and do nothing to help and unite the citizens. The creation of harmony is still waiting for the rich and powerful elites, represented by Biden, to let go of the meddling with their tangible hands.

Four years ago, when Trump came to power, he announced that “this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” What did he mean by “carnage”? Trump meant the politicians and bureaucrats of Washington, as well as the financial elites of Wall Street who squeezed the people to benefit themselves through the tangible hands of the government: they are protected by bodyguards, and their children are enrolled in fancy schools. The ordinary people, with no defense against the slaughter, live in desperation and their children go to Band 5 schools. To stop the “carnage” on this group of forgotten people, to let them join the happy party of the Washington rich and powerful and the Wall Street elites, and send their children to elite schools, he started a “historic movement” to “drain the swamp of Washington”.

In the November election, under the suspicion of planting votes and fraud, Trump lost with a tiny margin. The “historic movement” of ridding the ordinary people from the tangible hands of the aristocrats had not yet reached its goal, and the rich and powerful have all returned to the court. Trump’s die-hard fans are restless, and let out their frustration on Congress. Seeing the team Biden has chosen, Trump’s fans have surely not been misguided.

As for the Secretary of State-designate Anthony Blinken, he is the amalgamation of Wall Street elite and Washington dignitary: his father founded an investment bank, donated big money to Clinton’s campaign funds, and was rewarded as ambassador to Hungary; Blinken grew up in New York and Paris, and got his degrees from the Ivies – Harvard undergraduate, Columbia Law School – lived through both the Clinton and Obama eras, and has been team Biden for at least two decades. When Trump came to power, he was kicked out, and started his own consulting company, which is basically selling his Washington relationships to Google and Facebook for money.

After the mass arrest of the primary election personnel in Hong Kong, Blinken and Pompeo both tweeted to denounce the raid. However, it will be very difficult for someone like him, who has lived his entire life in the establishment, following the love and tolerance of Clinton and Obama, and the prioritization of global integration to be as clear-cut and bold as Trump and Pompeo regarding totalitarianism and sanctions against China, Iran, and Cuba.

Since its founding, the United States has always adopted the two-prong approach with small, local, autonomous government and a powerful, encompassing federal government. The former strives for self-restraint and less intervention by those in power; and the latter extends the central power to unite and strengthen the United States. When World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, in the beginning, the idea of local self-government was dominant, and the U.S. had remained neutral in its stance. It was not until three years later when a cruise ship full of American passengers was attacked that the U.S. finally participated in the war. Similarly, if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt would not have been able to persuade the American people to join the war.

One of the consequences of World War II was that it made Americans very confident. They saw themselves as the leader of the freedom camp, and assumed the role of the world police. However, after the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Middle East wars, and the war in Afghanistan, trillions of dollars were wasted, only to result in a mess. Trump was regrouping following the concept of small government. He prioritized the United States, withdrew troops of secondary strategic value from Europe and the Middle East, withdrew from Iran’s military restrictions and the Paris climate agreement in order to counter the international line favored by the Democrat’s Clinton and Obama.

Within the country, the idea of big government expanded during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. The outbreak of the civil rights movement in the 1960s led to intervention policies that sold welfarism in the name of “the Great Society”, through which with the tangible hands of the big government, the powerful elites were able to divvy up the spoils. The policy gave rise to the so-called “tribalism” that rejected oppositions, forming antagonisms in race, gender, urban and rural areas, and the common people and elites, which later intensified into the “carnage” of the ordinary people as Trump called it. In the end, they all stemmed from the tangible hand the big government has extended, and the many crude interventions that resulted from that.

The Biden administration is full of the old batteries from the Clinton and Obama eras. How would these powerful elites who are addicted to the big government stop? Following the same routine, there will not only be no harmony created, but on the contrary, an intensification of “tribalism”. Leaving the White House, Trump could swear that his historic movement is just unfolding.

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