by Cauf Skiviers, Cultural Inappropriation, ©2025
(Feb. 23, 2025) — The so-called international ‘rules-based’ liberal order is a house of cards built on ideals nobody believes in and rules nobody follows. For too long, America has been its blind trustee — bankrolling the West’s defense, underwriting global trade, and, in short, bleeding itself dry to grease a machine that’s already rusted out.
It swore peace through diplomacy, wealth through open borders, and safety through shared interests. What did we get? Endless wars and a world riding on a specific type of American leadership that they hoped would be strong enough to carry the load but never so mighty it could force anyone into line. Trump’s here to cash the check. Not a minute too soon.
They said this liberal order would lift every boat. Instead, it sank the American middle class. Factories vanished, jobs were shipped off, and whole counties were left to rot at the mercy of foreign oligarchies whose grand contributions to the world were the $1 t-shirt and the rashes they inflict on our skin.
Trump’s Great Reset rejects that schizophrenic dogma. It’s hard-nosed realism where national interest trumps global pie-in-the-sky dreams. The world is shaking, not in terror — but from the bone-cold shiver of waking up after a long coma.
The View From the Kids’ Table
Let’s look at Europe. For decades, they’ve been dining at the grownups’ table, sipping pinot and pontificating about the wonders of social democracy, all while Uncle Sam footed the bill for their very survival. Trump’s done with that. He’s banished them to the kids’ table, and they’re throwing a tantrum.
While Trump and Putin’s deputies hashed out Ukraine’s endgame in Saudi Arabia, Europe’s suits huddled somewhere, pretending to matter. Europe, old enough to be America’s grandmother, now behaves as a bratty teenage girl — whining for attention, threatening to cut itself if Daddy doesn’t cave. Blame a procession of weak leaders and a public lulled into apathy—an entire continent drunk on denial.
But some freeloaders are worse than others.
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