@soup-can
America is the largest nation state, and representative of a kind of society building.
Russia is more of a force. A behemoth that borders everyone--China, N. America, Europe, Asia, even has an outreach into Africa. They push ideas outward. China is also a force, but they are more of a mercantile empire, dedicated to manufacturing, to transactions, always acquisitive.
In short, everyone needs to pay attention to Russia and China, not really for the politics (this isn't as important as in the West), in Russia for the forces that are at play, their ideas they are pushing forth (like BRICS), on the other side for their mercantile interests and focus.
The US is the major representative of the West, the utopia building, which is what the West boldly tries to do, and how America was founded, a child of the Enlightenment.
The nation state and how we all want to see it evolve, matters to other people in the West. We rejected the notion of a nation state based on race+culture, in fact we fought a major war to defeat such an idea. So when we see a candidate run a campaign that uses rhetoric to spark enthusiasm, but this rhetoric is racist, divisive, then this does set off alarm bells. Trump supporters want us to forget HOW Trump won the election, but isn't this asking a lot? The fear is that he will institute this rhetoric, and isn't that a fair assumption? Will he allow the elites to run the show? Will war mongerers control the Treasury? Will free speech be muzzled and suppressed? Trump has the reigns now, and it matters.
America is the nation state that can counter balance the forces we will see from Russia. They can potentially halt the zealous mercantilism of China. They can show us how the nation state can be, a place of equality, of security, prosperity for all. The West depends on the US to be the representative of our best ideals. What Trump says or does impacts us all, defines our values, our individuality, our quest for freedom and security. If we lose confidence in our values, then it will predictably collapse, and these behemoths of the East will define life, culture, values, etc. because they were more strident, stronger....
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