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Threats to American Stability

Veniamin Popov, January 30, 2025

Five years ago, Suzanne Mettler and Robert Lieberman published a book titled Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, in which the authors examined five historical moments when the American democratic experiment faced serious potential harm.

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Published by St. Martin’s Press, the book explores the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Great Depression, and the Watergate scandal. Today, we observe some of the same issues resurfacing in American politics. Fortunately, history provides a valuable repository of lessons from which we can draw insights.
The American magazine The New Yorker described the rise of the new U.S. president as “the inauguration of Trump’s oligarchy”

The book noted that “political conflict had escalated to such an extent that Americans feared the government might collapse, the Union might disintegrate, or that unrest, violence, or even civil war could erupt”.

Four Recurring Threats to the United States

On January 11 of this year, Serge Schmemann, a member of the New York Times editorial board, wrote that the United States faces a serious threat stemming from the convergence of four recurring dangers: polarization, tribalism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power.

Many political scientists place the overconcentration of wealth in the hands of large corporations as the foremost concern – a long-standing trend in American society. According to a U.S. Congressional study published in 2022, wealth in the United States has become increasingly unevenly distributed. The share of total wealth held by families in the top 10% rose from 63% in 1989 to 72% in 2019.

Additionally, the $5 trillion collectively owned by 745 billionaires is two-thirds greater than the $3 trillion held by 50% of U.S. households, according to Federal Reserve estimates. A 2020 study by the RAND Corporation revealed that since 1975, approximately $50 trillion has been transferred from the incomes of the lowest-paid American workers into the hands of the top 1% of the wealthiest individuals. If wealth inequality had remained at 1970s levels, the average household income would be 67% higher than it is today.

Currently, as Joe Biden’s presidency has concluded, the American press – largely loyal to Democrats – features numerous articles detailing the shortcomings and failures of Biden’s leadership, accusing him of many missteps. 

Distrust and Division in American Society

It is worth highlighting the statement by Sergey Lavrov that the Biden administration caused significant damage to U.S.-Russia relations, while Donald Trump frequently refers to Biden as the worst president in U.S. history.

In his farewell address, Joe Biden, attempting to offset the negative perception of his presidency, warned Americans that the greatest danger currently threatening America is oligarchy: “The concentration of extraordinary wealth and power that poses a genuine threat to democracy, rights, freedoms, and the fair opportunity for everyone to succeed. It fractures the sense of unity and common purpose, fosters distrust and division in society, and makes participation in our democracy exhausting and even disheartening”.

The American magazine The New Yorker described the rise of the new U.S. president as “the inauguration of Trump’s oligarchy”.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has argued that the United States has already become an oligarchy, especially considering the immense concentration of wealth, political, and ideological power in the hands of a few individuals.

Biden’s warning about the formation of an unelected oligarchy echoes a similar caution from Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, in his farewell address, spoke about the growing influence of the military-industrial complex.

On Disinformation and Abuse of Power

Biden also raised concerns about the “technological-industrial complex”, which, he said, fosters “an avalanche of disinformation, enabling abuses of power”. He added that the free press is “collapsing”.

Recent evidence highlights how the media falsifies facts and spreads fake news to create impressions that align with their agendas, often far removed from reality. A striking example of this was the U.S. presidential campaign, during which media outlets loyal to the Democrats repeatedly asserted that Kamala Harris was more popular than Donald Trump.

CNN, in particular, was especially active in promoting this narrative. Recently, the network faced accusations of bias, and a businessman it defamed won a lawsuit, with the court ordering CNN to pay $5 million in damages. On December 19, 2024, the Saudi news channel Al Arabiya accused CNN of grossly distorting facts in a report about a prisoner in a Syrian jail.

America is already grappling with numerous challenges. On January 16, 2025, the journal Foreign Affairs noted, “Warning signs are flashing on America’s economic dashboard. Globalization and financialization over the past few decades have slowed investment, innovation, and growth. Industrial production and productivity have declined, and the United States has lost its leadership in critical technologies, including aerospace, energy, and semiconductors. While corporate profits, stock prices, and consumption have surged, crises such as opioid addiction in America’s heartland, the war in Europe, and a global pandemic have each, in their own way, exposed the decaying foundations of American security and prosperity”.

In his inaugural speech on January 20, President Donald Trump spoke of a “radical and corrupt establishment”.

Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of Germany’s left-wing party, recently described America as the weakest superpower, struggling to maintain its influence through its allies. The French right-wing newspaper Le Figaro concluded on January 19, 2025, that Trump’s return to power effectively marks the end of the West. Meanwhile, the influential Turkish publication Daily Sabah published an extensive article arguing that Trump’s inauguration represents, in essence, the inauguration of America’s decline.

 

Veniamin Popov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, PhD in History

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