In other words, Trump's ultra-nationalism and lack of diplomatic finesse are counterproductive to the quest to expand neoliberal hegemony to countries like Venezuela. With Biden, who would likely reinstate the Iran nuclear deal, put the abandoned Trans-Pacific Partnership back on the table, and not continue Trump's protectionist tactics that alienate U.S. allies, the empire will be able to run more smoothly. No wonder neocons like Bolton are glad to provide statements which confirm liberal suspicions about Trump being a foreign asset.
For these reasons, anti-Maduro pundits have recently been expressing hope that a Biden victory would be the beginning of the end for the Chavista government. This fantasy that these ruling class factions have been entertaining among themselves, where Latin America's biggest thorn on the side of the empire is finally removed, would correlate with the other parts of neoliberal realpolitik.
In the 2020s, this realpolitik will entail a great amount of internal austerity and repression for the imperial core, as well as an expansion of cold war operations against Russia and China. The policies of the core imperialist countries since the start of the pandemic has made this abundantly clear; the EU countries recently passed a bailout which imposes austerity across Europe, surveillance and censorship have been increasing within the NATO countries, and the U.S. has been expanding its anti-Russian war games while partnering with Australia to build up NATO's anti-Chinese military presence in the Indo-Pacific.
It's not hard to see why these neoliberal and imperialist machinations, even if they involve a return to the Obama doctrine and the successful overthrow of the Chavistas, will inevitably continue to make the empire less stable. The neoliberal world's perpetually deteriorating living conditions will encourage further civil unrest. The endlessly expanding military budget will contribute to this internal economic destruction, however much the imperialists try to get people to support the military buildup by demonizing Russia and China. Capitalism's crises-whether economic, social, or environment-will keep getting worse. And if Venezuela undergoes a neoliberal coup that forces it to share in this capitalist collapse, its armed proletarian masses will mobilize towards revolution, just like the masses of Bolivia have done after the U.S. overthrew their democratically elected president.
Faced with these incurable contradictions of capitalism and imperialism, the heads of the liberal order can only turn to fascism. Biden's suggestion earlier this year that U.S. police officers should shoot people in the legs, his call to prosecute protesters based on their political ideology, and his decision to pick a running mate who's fought to keep nonviolent prisoners locked up are symptoms of a sinister bipartisan trend. This is the trend of disregarding liberties in order to enforce "law and order," which the ruling class sees as increasingly vital amid growing class conflict. Their hope is that if anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist sentiments are successfully suppressed, they'll have no trouble with pursuing the militarism and austerity of the coming years.
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