https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/trump-us-expansion-panama-canada-greenland/index.html

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]
    ·
    23 hours ago

    I don’t see why this would be bad for those countries. They are already colonies, and instead of being another Puerto Rico, you might as well petition to become a proper US state so you get two senators and a handful of congress representatives and federal funding. At least you get some say in US politics.

    Europe should obviously do the same too.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      21 hours ago

      Canada, Panama and colonial Greenland are obviously not utopian societies but becoming part of the dysfunctional American empire world be detrimental to their populations. I don't know about Panama but Canada and Greenland has public healthcare. Losing that would be a major setback for ordinary people.

      And in the case of Panama and Greenland their population is not considered white and they would be treated as second-rate citizens in their own country. Greenland suffers a similar situation currently, being a Danish colony, but at least there is an understanding between Nuuk and Copenhagen that the Danish government wouldn't interfere if Greenland decided they wanted to be independent. For decades there has been a movement towards greater autonomy for Greenland. The current legislative framework gives the Greenlandic government the authority to take over responsibility for all types of policy except foreign affairs and the military. I doubt Washington would give better terms for independence.

      I also doubt that the yanks would want to give the peoples of Panama, Greenland and Canada full political rights. With America being so insanely right-wing as it is, the population of the new territories would be radical leftists within the yank political spectrum.

      • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        20 hours ago

        It would be just like the statehood of Hawaii. Fair game for capitalists while the locals are slowly pushed out.

      • xiaohongshu [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        19 hours ago

        That’s why they have to start petition for the statehood now instead of ending up like the EU, who has accepted the fate of becoming another Puerto Rico without resistance.

        Being able to travel to mainland United States to work is still better for the ordinary people instead of being without citizenship while having their economy swallowed by the US empire, like what is happening to the Europeans right now. They can’t just leave Europe and move to America without petitioning for an immigration visa, but if they become a US state, they can move freely to the US for work.

        • SoyViking [he/him]
          ·
          17 hours ago

          This might have had some persuasive power back in the 1950s when there still was an American dream for certain workers. But today giving up healthcare in return for the opportunity to enjoy the marvels of the American labour market would be batshit insane.

          Things are going to be shittier in Europe due to American exploitation, including the welfare state, but that doesn't mean they're not going to be any better in Burgerland.

          And, more importantly, the people's of Canada, Panada and Greenland do not want to be Americans. They know that it would make things worse for them.

    • Lemister [none/use name]
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Europe becoming part of the us would be very bad for russia and china. Because then the commitment by the US would be even higher. Canada yeah I could accept but Greenland will definitely end up like Hawaii.

    • GrosMichel [none/use name]
      ·
      23 hours ago

      No.

      It might be better for their bourgeois strata but it would be detrimental to their working classes. The US would subsume these countries the same way West Germany subsumed the GDR by ravaging what's there and investing nothing in return.

      • xiaohongshu [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        19 hours ago

        The US can end the economic sovereignty of these countries at any moment just as easily as it ended Europe’s, and they will happily accept the outcome just like the entire Europe Union happily welcomed the destruction of their energy infrastructure by the US empire.

        It’s better for both sides to give up the pretense and start petition for statehood instead of waiting for the illusion to be shattered. A statehood is still better than being a colony with no political rights at all. At least the people have citizenship and the legal status to travel to mainland United States to work.