Uncle Sam’s Kool-Aid

Image via Brownstoner

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Despite how uncomfortable one may be admitting or recognizing individual denial and delusion, we all are guilty of oscillating between the two safety nets. It is uniquely human to look for the things we want to hear, and even go as far as constructing our version of reality to relieve ourselves and find temporary sanity. Our delusions are almost always exploited to reinforce the invariable state of denial that we become dependent on. This arguably immature, emotional escape has operated as an epidemic; although intangible, like carbon monoxide, it is equally dangerous. 

Like most unhealthy coping habits some adopt—smoking, drinking, doom scrolling— they possess the comfortability that denial and delusion give us; they appear safe and pacifying. But the YouTube video that promised a six-minute six-pack deceives us, and naturally, logic cannot compete with willful unawareness. 

We’ve long swallowed Uncle Sam’s self-assured patriotic pride—because how else do you face a crumbling empire without a little Kool-Aid? Refrain from pointing fingers; you don’t have enough for the beloved blame game. Our revered empire is falling—and has been for some time.

Most elected officials share the same inability to speak the unvarnished truth. Even more so, they project their ignorance onto their constituents, keeping them illusioned by the functionality of the U.S. government. The bureaucratic folktale that guarantees the United States has and will always lead globally in democracy, economy, and fraternity is their most effective tool—effective like a pacifier to an upset child. But their shared trite talking points are not just a sad attempt to reach a word count or cheap applause, but steeped in Uncle Sam’s Kool-Aid.

On January 7 of 2025, just weeks before the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, Indonesia became the newest member of the BRICS alliance. This alliance—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—formed in 2009 with the primary goal of realizing its independence from the domination of the United States’ power and economy. With Indonesia and, more recently, Nigeria joining BRICS, the group and its partners en route to full membership make up nearly 55% of the global population. In comparison, the United States’ percentage of the global population is less than 4.5%, but even considering our G-7 allies whom President Trump has been severing ties with, we are only at 10%. 

An additional factor economists will use to define a declining empire is a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to measure how its economy performs on the global stage. The BRICS alliance’s total annual output accounts for 36% of the world’s output. The United States, along with its G-7 allies that most consider the champions of world trade, account for 28% of the global output. Much like an aged Hollywood starlet clinging to what is left of their declining stardom, the U.S. fails to recognize that while our victory lap after WWII has lasted 80 years, times have changed. The United States ranks #1 in the highest national debt in the world, sitting at $32.9 trillion. When a country accumulates an amount of debt this significant, there must be a creditor from whom we borrow and a country to whom we are indebted; China and Japan are the answers to both. As of 2024, China and Japan have been the largest foreign owners of U.S. debt, combining for a total of $2 trillion. To pay that debt, the U.S. must borrow more money from the two countries that can loan us that money—China and Japan. Given China’s status as a global economic superpower, its status in the BRICS alliance, and the amount of U.S. debt it holds, the United States must soon face the fact that its time as the premiere world power has come to an end.

President Trump and his billionaire friends like Elon Musk enjoy exploiting Uncle Sam’s Kool-Aid to keep the American people illusioned, oblivious to what is going on behind the curtain. Since Donald Trump took office, his tariffs, along with inflation, have taken from the pockets of everyday people—the opposite of what his campaign promised. And, despite how President Trump may justify his tariffs (i.e., they are encouraging consumers to purchase U.S.-made goods), the reality is that we have not seen prices go down. Although we have heard bird flu is the primary cause of rapidly increasing egg prices, it is only a fraction of the problem—because who sets the prices for the dozen eggs at the store? The employer. When Richard Nixon had to solve high inflation due to the Vietnam War, his freeze on large corporations raising prices or lowering wages corrected the market within less than 90 days. The economy as we see it now is an attempt by President Trump and Elon Musk to protect the wealthy class while simultaneously squeezing the working one. The goal? To strengthen a market economy that allows scarce goods to become unaffordable for working people, while the billionaires who set those consumer prices thrive. As we can see, the instability of the U.S. market is a tell-tale sign of an empire in decline, as our opponents in the BRICS alliance have achieved their goal of becoming dominant against the American empire.

Ever since the U.S. became victorious in WWII, it utilized the same successful tactics during future conflicts (e.g., the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Ukraine). Yet another sign of our empire’s decline from those conflicts is that we failed to win. How do we know that? Because Vietnam is still run by the Communist Party, the Taliban is in control of Afghanistan, and Russia has successfully invaded Ukraine without any real opposition. President Trump can threaten sanctions on Russian oil (which are inherently ironic because of his friendship with Putin), but Russia will simply turn to the strong allies it has within BRICS, who will continue to buy up said oil. U.S. threats are thus rendered useless. 

The Trump administration, alongside the billionaires they hold hands with in the Oval Office, will continue to exacerbate our insurmountable debt to foreign adversaries and limit the American people from escaping the unaffordability of everyday life. But the decline of the U.S empire has been coming for quite some time; the signs have been there as well. The solution weighs heavily not only on the American people collectively accepting their disillusionment with the U.S. economic system, but also doing something about it. The American people are the stakeholders of the oligarchs that have been running our empire into the ground, and the people together can combat it—despite how late we are to the fight. Uncle Sam’s Kool-Aid positions those like Donald Trump and Elon Musk as the arbiters of patriotism and success within the American public’s consciousness. It is up to the majority to recognize the delusions of our current moment and reject the denial that comes with it. This country may have lost the power and respect it once had, primarily due to money and neglect for the needs of ordinary Americans, but at the very least we still have a country—assuming we are willing to protect it.