The US We Knew No Longer Exists

The U.S. once guaranteed the continued existence of the “free West,” but now it has had enough.

I am part of a generation that owes its freedom to the U.S. Without the U.S., we could not have defeated the Nazi dictatorship. (The Soviet Union would not have won the war without American supplies, or would have won it much later.) Were it not for the U.S. leadership during Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Kennedy eras, Western Europe, including Austria, would have fallen victim to the expansionism of Joseph Stalin and his successors. After the war, the Americans promoted democratic ideas, especially in Austria, which was inclined toward authoritarianism. The U.S. stabilized Europe during countless major and minor crises (including Bill Clinton’s military intervention to counter Serbian expansionism during the war in the former Yugoslavia). Ronald Reagan’s U.S. military buildup significantly hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet economy was unable to keep up. Under U.S. leadership, NATO has protected Europe from Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions so far.

The U.S. has had, and continues to have, serious shortcomings. The Vietnam War was in part a criminal aberration, while the Americans craze for guns is eroding the social consensus. The political system, meanwhile, is outdated and no longer representative. However, it was the U.S. that ultimately guaranteed the continued existence of what is known as the “free world,” the free West. That was the case until yesterday, anyway.

Reckless Behavior

Since Donald Trump has returned to power, he has been working feverishly to turn the U.S. into a far-right autocracy. Tech oligarchs like Elon Musk are positioned to build a system of surveillance and manipulation that will make “1984” seem like history. This is the transformation Trump is trying to achieve domestically. Overseas, he is seeing a transformation centered on building a U.S. empire — with territorial claims (to Greenland and Canada) and without regard for inconvenient allies.

Trump wants to redivide the world alongside Putin and let Putin’s imperialist agenda in Europe proceed largely unchecked so that Trump can devote himself to his rivalry with China. He believes he can make a “deal” with a Russian imperialist to place Eastern Europe back under Russian influence, leaving the rest of Europe to figure out where it stands. Preferably, under the rule of Russian-leaning right-wing politicians like Marine Le Pen, Alice Weidel, Viktor Orbán and Herbert Kickl.

Putin Has Larger Ambitions

On the one hand, this ignores the impact that abandoning democratic allies in Europe would have on the U.S. On the other, Putin is not a dizzy real estate deal-maker like Trump. He has larger ambitions. He wants more than Ukraine, the Baltic States and the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe. He wants the U.S. out of Europe altogether and destruction of the entire postwar security architecture. Putin declared this before he even invaded Ukraine and is now reiterating that this will be up for discussion.

Trump’s U.S. doesn’t realize that or doesn’t care. But even under Kamala Harris, the traditional alignment between the U.S. and Europe would not have remained unchanged. The daughter of Indian Caribbean immigrants would have also had other priorities.

Four years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance will also be devastating for a free, democratic Austria. If those who oppose Trump and Putin in the U.S., Europe and Austria were to finally take the initiative, it wouldn’t have to be this way. But time is running out.