Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Us Empire In The Age Of Trump, Rebecca Thorpe

Class, Race and Corporate Power

To reflect on the decline of American influence in the geopolitical sphere, its internal fracturing and polarization, atrophying commitment to liberal democratic values and persistent tendency to confront global conflicts with military solutions raises crucial questions about whether American empire is sustainable, and whether it is in fact worth sustaining. First, how is it that a nation founded on liberal principles such as checks and balances, limited powers and individual rights has come to embrace its opposite—that is, virtually unbounded executive authority to stamp out security threats without regard for legal and ethical limitations? Second, what does an executive monopoly …