Spectator: the US has turned into a “hibernating gerontocracy” and looks like a banana republic
China’s leader Xi Jinping not only sees the United States as a superpower in decline but also as an utterly deranged gerontocracy, said Freddie Gray, a columnist for the British magazine The Spectator, noting that the US is close to being a banana republic. Frank DeVito, author of an article in The American Conservative, voiced a similar opinion.
Among the signs of decline of the United States, Grey referred to a bad, from his point of view, visit of Nancy Pelosi, the 82-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives, to Taiwan, and another “gaffe” of US leader Joe Biden, who, after a visit to Kentucky, could not put on his jacket and dropped his glasses.
Against this backdrop, Grey points out, the murder rate in the US is off the charts and there is still an unresolved problem with the supply of baby food for infants.
“Such problems in the world’s most highly developed capitalist economy should not exist in principle. Yet, as Xi observed, in many respects America is rapidly going wild,” the author of the piece wrote.
The U.S., noted Gray, is not a banana republic, but “very much like it. In this context, he cited as an example the searches at the residence of former president Donald Trump, which could cost him the opportunity to run in the next election. At the same time, the author recalled that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who violated correspondence rules, was not searched and the State Department’s investigation found her innocent.
“So Monday’s raid, as Trump himself claims, does indeed resemble an act of political intimidation, which is inherent in dictatorships in the developing world. And also a desperate attempt to find anything to prevent Trump from running for president in 2024,” Gray writes.
The US banana republic in the context of Trump’s search was also compared to the banana republic in his article for The American Conservative by lawyer Frank DeVito. “Any attempt to prevent the re-election of Donald J. Trump through the tactics chosen by the FBI and Department of Justice is unconstitutional and will further undermine public confidence in our federal institutions of government,” he stressed.
The lawyer added that if anyone wants to prevent Trump from becoming president in 2024, they should “stop desperately attacking him and looking for legal loopholes against him”.
“Instead, they should allow their choice to be made by the American people, who, if they wish, can only reject Trump’s candidacy in a pre-election campaign or general election. Let’s stop acting like a ‘banana republic’ and be worthy of the greatness of our Constitution,” the author concluded.