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The Empire in Denial: Richard D. Wolff on the Political Spin of American Decline [1]

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Date: 2025-06-03

In his characteristically direct and unsparing style, economist Richard D. Wolff explores not just the decline of the American empire, but the political narrative architecture built to hide, distort, and redirect public understanding of that decline. In this more politically focused analysis, Wolff uncovers how both elite Democrats and Republicans, particularly under Donald Trump’s leadership, are engaged in a campaign of strategic misdirection—a form of political theater that blames foreign enemies and ideological scapegoats while protecting the true culprits behind America’s economic deterioration: its own corporate class.

I. The Political Necessity of the Narrative

Wolff argues that U.S. leaders—especially those aligned with the Trump wing of the Republican Party—have embraced an aggressive, grievance-driven economic populism as a last-ditch effort to sustain the crumbling foundations of American global dominance. As American manufacturing waned, wages stagnated, and national debt soared past $35 trillion, the ruling class faced a crucial political challenge: how to maintain legitimacy in the face of obvious economic failure.

Rather than confronting the internal contradictions of American capitalism, politicians, particularly Trump, have reframed the situation as a foreign betrayal. The story, as Wolff lays it out, is simple and effective: America was “played” by China, “cheated” by Europe, “ripped off” by Vietnam and Bangladesh—and betrayed internally by “weak Democrats” and “Bush-type Republicans” who failed to defend the American people. This story allows Trump to campaign not as part of the ruling elite, but as the lone strongman who will “punish the cheaters” through tariffs, trade wars, and isolationist economic policy.

II. The Hidden Architecture of Corporate Guilt

What makes this narrative effective—and dangerous—is that it redirects attention away from the real architects of decline: U.S. corporations. Wolff is explicit: the outsourcing of jobs to China, Vietnam, and elsewhere was not forced on America by foreign governments. Rather, it was a conscious decision by American capitalists seeking higher profit margins, lower wages, and looser regulations. These decisions were made in boardrooms, not in Beijing.

To admit this would require blaming corporate America, which Trump will not and cannot do, Wolff argues, because it would bring his political career to an end. Trump, despite his outsider rhetoric, is deeply enmeshed in the same corporate networks that benefit from neoliberal globalization. Hence, the narrative must be maintained: foreigners are the villains, and America must “retaliate.”

III. Tariffs and Taxes: Populism in Reverse

Wolff reveals the deeper economic mechanics of Trump’s protectionist policies. The use of tariffs—widely marketed as a way to make foreign countries “pay”—in reality functions as a tax on the American people. When a tariff is placed on Chinese electric vehicles, for example, it raises the price of the vehicle in the U.S., forcing American consumers to pay more. Tariffs on food, wine, clothing, and tech imports mean working-class Americans pay extra—all while being told they are “winning” an economic war.

This is economic sleight-of-hand: extract more from the domestic population while cutting services, slashing safety nets, and preserving corporate profit margins. The public is told this is patriotism. In reality, it is austerity disguised as vengeance.

IV. The Desperation of Empire: When Illusions Replace Strategy

Wolff draws a chilling portrait of a government that is no longer governing from a position of strength, but rather from a position of strategic desperation. The U.S. is the most indebted nation in the world, and its two largest creditors—Japan and China—now hold American Treasury debt that sustains federal spending, including the funding of wars against China’s own allies. This, Wolff says, reveals the incoherence and instability of U.S. global power.

While the dollar remains dominant for now, the cracks in the system are showing. Rising gold prices signal global uncertainty, and the inability of the U.S. to extract consistent financial loyalty from its allies marks a turning point. Trump's response? To attack the very allies that once underwrote American dominance. Trade wars with Canada, the EU, and China have made the U.S. an increasingly unreliable economic partner, generating retaliatory tariffs that further isolate the country and damage its exports.

V. Blame, Nationalism, and the Authoritarian Drift

Wolff suggests that the Trumpian strategy is not chaos—it’s calculated. He outlines a coherent program: stick it to the foreigner, stick it to the working class, and use nationalism to unite the base around a sense of cultural grievance and betrayal. When a government cannot offer material prosperity, it offers a scapegoat and a strongman.

This is a page directly borrowed from the playbooks of declining empires throughout history. In Wolff’s view, the American system is repeating a familiar pattern: replace vision with vengeance, cooperation with coercion, and solidarity with suspicion. And when that fails, cut services, militarize rhetoric, and deepen inequality—but keep the corporate engine untouched.

VI. The Price of Denial and the Hope of Honest Reckoning

Wolff concludes with a plea: if the U.S. is to have any hope of survival as a functioning democratic society, it must begin to ask the forbidden questions—especially about capitalism itself. Why does 3% of the population, the employer class, control the economic lives of the rest? Why do we accept workplaces modeled on autocracy, yet insist our political system is democratic?

Just as past generations questioned monarchy, slavery, or segregation, Wolff argues that we must now confront the tyranny of economic hierarchy that hides behind the illusion of markets, merit, and freedom. If we do not, we risk a future where economic fascism is normalized under the guise of patriotic revival—where Americans pay more, get less, and cheer for their own decline because the blame was aimed elsewhere.

Conclusion

Richard D. Wolff offers more than critique—he offers clarity. In this second lecture, he pulls back the curtain on the political spin machine that reframes decline as greatness and scapegoating as governance. What emerges is a sobering truth: the American empire is not just in decline—it is in denial. And unless that denial is confronted with truth, solidarity, and structural change, the story of decline will end not with a revolution, but with a whimper—and a tariff.

Most People Have No Idea What about to Happen

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/3/2325886/-The-Empire-in-Denial-Richard-D-Wolff-on-the-Political-Spin-of-American-Decline?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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