Trump represents a lot of what the Western world advocated from the 80’s and the Reagan era : the importance of communication, virilism, the ability to impose your ideas ; but also short term vision, no importance enough given to education, social redistribution or culture. If you see that Reagan went into power at the same time as Xiaoping in China, it is noticeable that the great growth of China counterbalances a relative decline of the Western world.
The election of Trump represents an America who doesn’t accept to decline and lose its status of hyperpower. On the other hand the America of Biden accepted more this fact and to compose with alliances to face the growth of China. But Trump, as the Western world advocates, is a quite short term player, and focuses more on the apparences than reality. The reality is a decline of education, an overwhelming debt and the decline of the middle class which is the basis of society. Keynes thought that a great goal of economical policy was to allow a great middle class. It is what China succeeded to do from the 80’s. Even if inequalities are still great, the important investment in education created a powerful middle class and put out of poverty 800 million people in 40 years. The Western world, on the other hand, forgets the importance of teachers in society and give them quite inacceptable conditions of working in many ways. But education is efficient in the long run ; the short term thinking Western world wants everything at once and is creating its own decline partly this way. On the contrary China understood the importance of patience and long term building. The results after 40 years show the great difference of efficiency between the two models.
Trump symbolizes a blind Western world. Many reactionary parties in Europe, with ideas similar to Trump, represent this idea. It is true that the Western world has seriously to consider the evolution of its identity and its values. But it is not with intolerance, communautarism and mediocrity that it can overcome this challenge. A demanding education system, the promotion of culture and arts as well as massive investment in scientific research, and more work asked to the general population while protecting the most fragile works can contribute to face this decline. Work is not a word valorized enough, while the Chinese are great hard workers and went back to their confucean traditions. It doesn’t excuse the great exploitation of children in many factories are the genocide of the Uygurs, but we should inspire more from the great ability of the Chinese people to reinvent its future. Today the Western world faces a brilliant opponent and it is not with the B series behaviour of Trump that we will be able to face it.
It is the reason why the poker game doesn’t look enough to mask by bluffes the decline of the Western world. Investing in the basis of all civilizations, knowledge, is more efficient than the communication shows of Trump which is great for the social media and its great rule of superficiality. It is the reason why the Western world has to change its mentality as the Asian countries succeeded to do, for instance linking their great periods of the past and the battle for economic development and innovation.
The observer 