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The End Of The American Empire

The following is with Patrick Watts who is one hell of an interesting fella, and he is precisely the person I have in mind when it comes for sourcing good guests for this podcast.

The more we talked both before and after the interview, it became really clear how almost exactly overlapping our interests are… everything from the obscure to the predictable (therefore I am assuming a deep overlap with you as well dear reader)… therefore needless to say, this was a really fun episode to record!

The podcast is about the themes from his debut book, The End Of The American Empire. 

The End Of The American Empire – UK Amazon

The End Of The American Empire – US Amazon

It’s just come out in US and UK markets, so don’t hesitate a second to go and get it. Amazon link is in the description… this is a self published book from Patrick, so my hope is that the curious worldview audience will really make a difference in moving the needle here.

#168 w/ Patrick Watts - The End Of The American Empire

Forward this email or share this podcast episode with your mate who is either a bit to bullish or a bit to bearish in your eyes for the future prospects of the great United States!

Here is a transcript of the opening exchange from the conversation…

Ryan
It is mind boggling that this objectively most important state in the world has gotten to the point where there's two completely unlikable options to choose from.

Patrick Watts
Yeah, it's insane, isn't it? You've got 300-odd million people, and the best two choices are both aging, both showing signs of mental decline. I think it's bizarre. I think Elon Musk suggested, didn't he, that there should be a cap on the age limit of office, and I kind of agree with that. Gordon Brown, our ex-prime minister, made quite a funny quote the other day where he said, I'm in that strange period where I'm too old to be a British prime minister but too young to be a US, China or a Russian leader. I thought it was quite funny.

Ryan
You speculate in the book as to how they got to this position.

Patrick Watts
Yeah, well, I think in general, both parties have kind of, they've shown a bit of a disregard and a denigration of the democratic process and democracy as a whole. I think if you go all the way back to Bush and Gore in Florida, the kind of the early declaration of victory, and that was, I think, the first kind of chink in the armor of the American democratic system.

And then I talk a lot about the idea of succession legitimacy and that being a massive thing, especially in democracy, you have to maintain the succession legitimacy. And at the moment there is none. And I think it's not just the obvious Trump literally trying to steal an election last time. That is the end or the current endpoint of this succession. You look at Bernie Sanders being kind of screwed out of the nomination for the Democrats because they wanted to anoint Hillary Clinton. Then you had Hillary Clinton losing that election because she was an unpopular candidate. And then instead of kind of a bit of soul searching in a come to Jesus moment, the Democrats just blamed Russia. And obviously there was Russian interference, but that was not the sole reason why she lost. So they didn't make the changes that they required. And they, again, chipped away at the legitimacy of the president, like him or not. And also, it's crazy, isn't it? If you look at the statistics of how many of the recent presidents have won, even though they've lost the popular vote.

So, you know, there's so many different parts of that system that just don't seem to work.

Ryan
Yeah. Is there a more damning data point as to a failing democracy than that?

Patrick Watts
Well, it's bizarre, isn't it? Because on the very face of it, you look at it and say, well, hang on. How many people voted for who? You know, it should be as simple as that. And I think I kind of speculate about what different alternatives are there. Because obviously, you know, no one's perfect. In the UK, we have the first-past-the-post system, which means that my vote is worth differently to somebody else's vote in the country. Other states, I think Italy, they have a way of just kind of making up votes so that you don't kind of have minority governments. So there's no kind of perfect situation. But, yeah, I think currently the actual legitimacy of the of the US kind of model is in a bit of a shambles and I don't see any result that I can forecast of this election that's going to change that.

Ryan
From a cultural or even social perspective, do you have an explanation for how their two options are both these shocking, horrible, unlikable people?

Patrick Watts
I think the problem is there's a really good book by a chap called Matt Taibbi called Hate Inc. and I read that about maybe about seven or eight years ago and essentially that posits that after the Cold War the US was global hyper power. There was essentially empire. There was no real challenger. You had the war on terror and you had kind of some disastrous occurrences there. But in terms of a direct challenger.

There was nobody for the US to root against. So, in absence of that, especially after the conclusion of the war on terror kind of proper, the media essentially whipped up these partisan feuds to essentially fight each other. So you've got this situation where everything is completely hyper-partisan and that has created the conditions where a candidate like Donald Trump can emerge. He is just a symptom of the situation. You know, the people that are voting for him, especially the first time around, I don't think the majority of them voted for him because they like his character. They also probably don't like many of his policies, but they just feel completely ignored by the alternative. And the alternative was the Democrats who don't represent them whatsoever. For what it's worth, I actually think if Joe Biden had decided to quit or to say that he was only going to be a one-term president, he would have been remembered as one of their better presidents. But unfortunately, he's been seen to be, you know, kind of forcing the issue and carrying on. And now, you know, he's incredibly unpopular. And a kind of link to that is, unfortunately, the unpopularity ratings of the VP, Kamala Harris. I think if she was much more popular, I don't think he'd be running. It's not her fault. She's just not unpopular, isn't she? So I think it's, yeah, it's an impossible situation. Plus the Republicans, for a start, that party is now, as Donald Trump Jr.'s son said on the 6th of January, this is Donald Trump's party now. You know, that was years ago and it still stands to reason.

Ryan
Joey B is 82 years old. Surely you just want to retire, spend some time with the grandkids, play golf, I mean, anything, yeah. Write a book, write-

Patrick Watts
anything like it's you know like walks in the walks in the country like to get on the memoirs get the presidential library up and running but yeah it's um

Ryan
Yeah. Set down some legit memoirs. I mean, the man's lived a hell of a life.

Patrick Watts
Yeah, and it's, I think there's a part in the book where I kind of talk about, you know, is this kind of why wise old heads or just running out of options. And I think this is…

……. continue the conversation with the podcast here.