The Big Men are Back

Instead of by, for, and of ‘The People,’ government is taken over by smallish, privileged elites who devote their entire careers to extracting wealth and power from the people they are meant to serve.

Source: Grok

Thursday, March 6th, 2025

Bill Bonner, writing from Baltimore, Maryland

‘There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that… all we needed was a new President. ‘

—Donald Trump, after edging out George Washington as best president in US history

The USA had the first mover advantage. Its Declaration of Independence in 1776 began the Age of Democracy.

France had a messier upheaval in 1789…and reverted to Big Man rule only a few years later, when Napoleon crowned himself. Nevertheless, democracy was the Primary Political Trend of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The idea was that nations could be governed by principles…rules…and laws, rather than the will of dictators, kings or strongmen. The US wrote a Constitution…a set of rules on paper that everyone accepted, more or less. Whatever challenges the new nation faced would be met according to the plan.

Power was channeled through institutions. Laws would be written by the peoples’ representatives in elected parliaments. They would be administered by the President, also elected by the voters. Conflicts would be settled in courts.

The model was so attractive that it became one of America’s leading exports. European nations took to it wholeheartedly after the Big Men — Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini — were defeated.

Then, after 1945, all over the world ‘democracy’ became as fashionable as Coca-Cola, tailfins and freeways. African nations adopted versions of the US system. Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam also favored the US model…until the US spurned him. Mexico, the Philippines, China — all were influenced by the US democratic system.

And then, with its 800 forward bases, and its CIA spooks promoting regime change in dozens of countries…the US model grew more sinister. But it was still a ‘rules based’ order…with a scope that got bigger and bigger. The World Trade Organization promoted rules for trade. UNESCO sought to apply US leadership to education, science and the arts, just as the UN itself offered a version of globalized parliamentary democracy to the entire planet.

And there was the judicial branch. The International Court of Justice…the International Criminal Court…there is even an International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. All are expected to provide means of settling disputes without resorting to Big Man bossing or war.

When exactly ‘Peak Democracy’ was reached is a question we leave to others. Perhaps it was that moment in 2005 when Iraq held its first election following the US invasion. Voters held up their index fingers with a purple stain, to show that they had gone along with the gag.

By then, there was already something phony about it. Globalized democracy was becoming decadent — backed, or enforced, by America’s off-the-charts military budget. The US had conquered Iraq; it was was replacing previous elites with some of its own choosing. It was no surprise, then, that a former CIA asset — Ayad Allawi — became prime minister.

The larger the scale, the bigger the scam. On a small scale — say, a small town or a church vestry — democracy can work reasonably well. Everybody knows both the policy issues… and the people behind them. They are local. Understandable. Manageable. ‘The People’ really can have a government by, for and of themselves.

Not so for the USA…and even less so for globalized ‘democratic’ institutions. Power corrupts them. Time and distance corrode them. Instead of by, for, and of ‘The People,’ the government is taken over by smallish, privileged elites who devote their entire careers to extracting wealth and power from the people they are meant to serve.

These globalized elites — coming out of the same culture, same schools, same ideology -- are very different from ‘the people’ who vote for them. And suddenly it becomes obvious that they hold their constituents in contempt. So it was that the Democrats lost the support of their own base, after tagging those who didn’t concur with their world-improving fantasies as “deplorable” (Hillary Clinton) or “garbage” (Joe Biden).

The electorate may not be too bright or too well informed but it doesn’t like being insulted. And so, come November 5, 2024, voters pulled the lever for a different kind of politician…one who signals a whole new…but much older… government tradition — the Big Man.

The Big Man — Putin in Russia, Xi in China, now Trump in the US — is not necessarily better or worse than the democratic model. On the minus side, he is often blinded by his own genius and makes Big Mistakes. Napoleon in Moscow…the Fuhrer in Stalingrad, Mao’s Cultural Revolution – Big Men tend to overestimate their own abilities and over-reach, often with disastrous consequences.

On the plus side, a Big Man leader is able to do things a more conventional ‘democrat’ — such as Joe Biden — couldn’t do.

Today’s democratic system — like an old oak tree, now home to squirrels, worms, birds, vines and other parasites — cannot fix itself. The parasites are in control.

The Big Man — less beholden to elites — might be able to clean it up. Governing by edict — Executive Orders, rather than laws — he trashes billions of dollars’ worth of foolish spending…and tosses out much of the claptrap that led the Democrats to their much-deserved loss.

If he were wise and well-meaning, a big man leader might also crash the feds’ runaway spending, balance the budget and save the country from a fiscal catastrophe. He might bring the troops home, too, slash the military budget and avoid any more costly, disastrous adventures.

But as big as he is, he is never entirely independent of the courts, Congress, the bureaucracy, Wall Street, lobbyists, the Deep State, the military, donors…or rich people. Not even Louis 14th had absolute control over the government; he had even less control over the country itself. In every case, an army of willing enforcers, informers, influencers, hangmen and administrators is needed.

By the evidence of his speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump has found his yes-monkeys…ready to jump up in interminable applause at every dumb thing he says.

Tomorrow, let’s see how he might tackle the biggest threat facing the US. Or not.

More to come…

Regards,

Bill Bonner