Make America Great Again (MAGA) is a great slogan for the U.S. and a timely movement simply because the U.S. is projected to be overtaken as the world’s largest economy and is laden with an ever-bigger national debt now at thirty-one trillion. Without a MAGA movement, the U.S. will never be able to maintain its world leadership position. If continuing with its legacy policies, the U.S. may decline and become isolated as a North American nation with two close neighbors, Canada and Mexico.
Realistically, it will not be an easy task to accomplish MAGA in a few years. It requires the U.S. to divert some resources used today in foreign affairs to maintain its hegemony position to domestic MAGA initiatives and projects. It must also solicit international partnerships to cooperate in its MAGA programs based on resource needs, costs, and efficiency considerations. This is especially true in infrastructure projects, either in initializing new or modernizing old systems in the areas of communication (5G-7G Internet), green energy (solar, wind, etc.), transportation (high-speed rail and new ports), and utility (dams and electricity transmission).
Under the above scenario, MAGA can only work effectively with international partners to produce returns for all participants and create global benefits. This is a concept of Make All World Good Altogether (MAWGA). The easiest way to illustrate the MAWGA concept is to use a hypothetical project to demonstrate why MAGA depends on MAWGA. Let’s say when China and Peru were thinking of building a deep-water seaport in Peru and a west-east high-speed rail in Brazil connecting to Peru, the U.S. may propose a MAGA infrastructure project inviting Canada (Vancouver to Seattle rail connection), China (investor and construction partner), Mexico (rail feeding into El Paso), Texas (Houston port and rail), New Orleans (port and rail), Florida (port and rail, Jacksonville and Miami) and up north to Boston (upgrade Amtrak to high-speed from Boston to Miami). This proposal can be beneficial to MAGA projects with the MAWGA objectives and advantages to the world.
The above example is used to illustrate the concept of a dual objective MAGA/MAWGA program, one to reduce commerce and transportation costs to stimulate the U.S. economy and two to benefit world trade and commerce. The U.S. can leverage China’s infrastructure construction ability and can gain experience and benefits if co-invested with China-Peru in Chancay Port. If China is willing to make investments in Peru and Brazil, there is no reason that the U.S. shouldn’t invest there and Canada and Mexico. If there is a low-cost rail-sea path eventually connecting the entire North America and South America and linking both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans with the rest of the world, there is no doubt that it would benefit the U.S. (MAGA) and the world (MAWGA).
The legacy U.S. foreign policy of maintaining a monopolistic superpower status by projecting military power all over the world with military bases is obsolete from today’s political philosophy (colonialism is dead while a global community is desired and very much alive) and from an economic cost-effectiveness point of view (each nation brings its assets on the table and rich nations invest in needed nations to build win-win projects). The U.S. encumbered unaffordable costs to maintain its military presence all over the world in the name of maintaining security, but in reality, the result was conflicts, unrest, and wars everywhere because the U.S. uses regional military alliance to deal with international issues rather than to build an inter-dependent economy to resolve issues. China, as a fast-developing nation, did just the opposite to become the number one trading partner with over 135 nations while she shies away from military alliances. One must say that China has learned well from her thousands of years of history: Humans must co-exist on earth, and nations are just a social structure for people to maintain a peaceful life. Political ideology and religious ideology should be barred from nations to avoid divisions, conflicts, and, worse, hatred.
Under the charter of never interfering in other nations’ domestic affairs, never using nuclear weapons first or on any non-nuclear nations, and promoting win-win economic development with any willing partner, China worked hard and gained trust to rise to be the world’s second-largest economy. China lifted its poverty (nearly a billion citizens), modernized its entire nation (agriculture, infrastructure, nation building including defense to resist external threats), and advocated the philosophy of ‘A common destiny for humans on Earth’ with proposals such as Bridge and Road Initiative (BRI) to work with the entire world to develop economies for mutual prosperity.
The U.S. is a young nation born in the time of sprouting liberalism, seeking freedom and democracy. The U.S. had a fortunate growth experience and emerged as a great nation in the rich North American continent protected by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The U.S. benefited from both WW I and WW II and became the world’s superpower. However, its evolving democratic system has not been perfected, its national strategy of imposing an imperfect ‘democratic’ system onto every nation in the world has backfired. Democracy does not work well in poor nations (especially in countries with low literacy and poor education) or rich nations (with big wealth gaps). Hence, the U.S. effort in exporting democracy is essentially a failure, just looking at some of the poor African nations and small island countries as well as some of the wealthy states in the Middle East. In the U.S. Itself, the two-party democracy is also bogged down with inefficiency, indecisions, and kicking the can down the road syndrome.
Trump is a miracle with his overwhelming victory, now supported by a majority of the population, both the Senate and the House, as well as the 27R:23D governorship. Trump is now mandated with MAGA, but with only one term limit, he must carefully define his MAGA. With a set of achievable goals, he can accomplish and leave a long-term impact. To be successful, he must be focused and efficient. Defining a set of MAGA goals aligned with the MAWGA objective is essential, as explained above. Domestically, starting with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative is correct, but it won’t be easy. On foreign relations, he must leverage partnerships to achieve his MAGA goals. Align MAGA with the MAWGA concept increases his chance of success and the possibility of impacting future Administrations. Currently, the nation has unfortunately cultivated a wrong sentiment of blaming China for the U.S. problems and decline.
The anti-China sentiment is not only groundless but also unfair to the citizens of the two nations and unproductive for the U.S. to achieve MAGA goals and the MAWGA objective. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was a culprit for inflaming the anti-China sentiments, but he may be directed to reverse that sentiment for MAGA and MAWGA objectives. If Trump has Rubio’s loyalty, he can direct Rubio to make a credible reversal since Rubio had only worked with a few Chinese anti-CCP dissenters and never visited China to meet with high-ranking officials. Thus, Trump and Rubio have an opportunity to develop collaborative U.S.-China relations for the MAGA/MAWGA objective. Accomplishing MAGA is a long-term goal, requiring a correct U.S.-China relationship. The author believes that Trump can use his victory (election mandate) to advantage to develop his achievable MAGA goals, build a collaborative partnership with China, and make a lasting impact on MAGA/MAWGA objective!
Make America Great Again (MAGA) is a great slogan for the U.S. and a timely movement simply because the U.S. is projected to be overtaken as the world’s largest economy and is laden with an ever-bigger national debt now at thirty-one trillion. Without a MAGA movement, the U.S. will never be able to maintain its world leadership position. If continuing with its legacy policies, the U.S. may decline and become isolated as a North American nation with two close neighbors, Canada and Mexico.
Realistically, it will not be an easy task to accomplish MAGA in a few years. It requires the U.S. to divert some resources used today in foreign affairs to maintain its hegemony position to domestic MAGA initiatives and projects. It must also solicit international partnerships to cooperate in its MAGA programs based on resource needs, costs, and efficiency considerations. This is especially true in infrastructure projects, either in initializing new or modernizing old systems in the areas of communication (5G-7G Internet), green energy (solar, wind, etc.), transportation (high-speed rail and new ports), and utility (dams and electricity transmission).
Under the above scenario, MAGA can only work effectively with international partners to produce returns for all participants and create global benefits. This is a concept of Make All World Good Altogether (MAWGA). The easiest way to illustrate the MAWGA concept is to use a hypothetical project to demonstrate why MAGA depends on MAWGA. Let’s say when China and Peru were thinking of building a deep-water seaport in Peru and a west-east high-speed rail in Brazil connecting to Peru, the U.S. may propose a MAGA infrastructure project inviting Canada (Vancouver to Seattle rail connection), China (investor and construction partner), Mexico (rail feeding into El Paso), Texas (Houston port and rail), New Orleans (port and rail), Florida (port and rail, Jacksonville and Miami) and up north to Boston (upgrade Amtrak to high-speed from Boston to Miami). This proposal can be beneficial to MAGA projects with the MAWGA objectives and advantages to the world.
The above example is used to illustrate the concept of a dual objective MAGA/MAWGA program, one to reduce commerce and transportation costs to stimulate the U.S. economy and two to benefit world trade and commerce. The U.S. can leverage China’s infrastructure construction ability and can gain experience and benefits if co-invested with China-Peru in Chancay Port. If China is willing to make investments in Peru and Brazil, there is no reason that the U.S. shouldn’t invest there and Canada and Mexico. If there is a low-cost rail-sea path eventually connecting the entire North America and South America and linking both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans with the rest of the world, there is no doubt that it would benefit the U.S. (MAGA) and the world (MAWGA).
The legacy U.S. foreign policy of maintaining a monopolistic superpower status by projecting military power all over the world with military bases is obsolete from today’s political philosophy (colonialism is dead while a global community is desired and very much alive) and from an economic cost-effectiveness point of view (each nation brings its assets on the table and rich nations invest in needed nations to build win-win projects). The U.S. encumbered unaffordable costs to maintain its military presence all over the world in the name of maintaining security, but in reality, the result was conflicts, unrest, and wars everywhere because the U.S. uses regional military alliance to deal with international issues rather than to build an inter-dependent economy to resolve issues. China, as a fast-developing nation, did just the opposite to become the number one trading partner with over 135 nations while she shies away from military alliances. One must say that China has learned well from her thousands of years of history: Humans must co-exist on earth, and nations are just a social structure for people to maintain a peaceful life. Political ideology and religious ideology should be barred from nations to avoid divisions, conflicts, and, worse, hatred.
Under the charter of never interfering in other nations’ domestic affairs, never using nuclear weapons first or on any non-nuclear nations, and promoting win-win economic development with any willing partner, China worked hard and gained trust to rise to be the world’s second-largest economy. China lifted its poverty (nearly a billion citizens), modernized its entire nation (agriculture, infrastructure, nation building including defense to resist external threats), and advocated the philosophy of ‘A common destiny for humans on Earth’ with proposals such as Bridge and Road Initiative (BRI) to work with the entire world to develop economies for mutual prosperity.
The U.S. is a young nation born in the time of sprouting liberalism, seeking freedom and democracy. The U.S. had a fortunate growth experience and emerged as a great nation in the rich North American continent protected by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The U.S. benefited from both WW I and WW II and became the world’s superpower. However, its evolving democratic system has not been perfected, its national strategy of imposing an imperfect ‘democratic’ system onto every nation in the world has backfired. Democracy does not work well in poor nations (especially in countries with low literacy and poor education) or rich nations (with big wealth gaps). Hence, the U.S. effort in exporting democracy is essentially a failure, just looking at some of the poor African nations and small island countries as well as some of the wealthy states in the Middle East. In the U.S. Itself, the two-party democracy is also bogged down with inefficiency, indecisions, and kicking the can down the road syndrome.
Trump is a miracle with his overwhelming victory, now supported by a majority of the population, both the Senate and the House, as well as the 27R:23D governorship. Trump is now mandated with MAGA, but with only one term limit, he must carefully define his MAGA. With a set of achievable goals, he can accomplish and leave a long-term impact. To be successful, he must be focused and efficient. Defining a set of MAGA goals aligned with the MAWGA objective is essential, as explained above. Domestically, starting with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative is correct, but it won’t be easy. On foreign relations, he must leverage partnerships to achieve his MAGA goals. Align MAGA with the MAWGA concept increases his chance of success and the possibility of impacting future Administrations. Currently, the nation has unfortunately cultivated a wrong sentiment of blaming China for the U.S. problems and decline.
The anti-China sentiment is not only groundless but also unfair to the citizens of the two nations and unproductive for the U.S. to achieve MAGA goals and the MAWGA objective. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was a culprit for inflaming the anti-China sentiments, but he may be directed to reverse that sentiment for MAGA and MAWGA objectives. If Trump has Rubio’s loyalty, he can direct Rubio to make a credible reversal since Rubio had only worked with a few Chinese anti-CCP dissenters and never visited China to meet with high-ranking officials. Thus, Trump and Rubio have an opportunity to develop collaborative U.S.-China relations for the MAGA/MAWGA objective. Accomplishing MAGA is a long-term goal, requiring a correct U.S.-China relationship. The author believes that Trump can use his victory (election mandate) to advantage to develop his achievable MAGA goals, build a collaborative partnership with China, and make a lasting impact on MAGA/MAWGA objective!
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