Some still don't get it that US relevance is waning

The election of the Democrat Joe Biden as the next US president has left many people, and even some countries, the Philippines among them, wondering what his presidency means to them. They still have not read the signs that all point to the slow but steady decline of US relevance and influence in global affairs.

Time was when it was said that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold. No longer. Nearly two weeks since the election, with President Donald Trump still not conceding and in fact challenging the results, claiming fraud, and global stock markets have not crashed, riots have not broken out, no mass mobilizations of militaries have been called anywhere.

If America implodes, it implodes alone. Yet the footnotes to the great American story shouldn't have had to include such an ignominious fate as that of a country eating itself up. For the greatest and most powerful country in the world, in a blaze of glory would have been a more appropriate fate. But it is too late for that now.

After taking its sweet time, China finally congratulated Biden on his win. There was no eagerness in the felicitation. More like matter of fact, acting from a to-do list. It might even be added that there was sarcasm in the congrats, a gloat, a smirk, a snort. China is truly now acting like a peer, or even a superior, to the US. No cutting the line to shake the hand. That is for eager-to-pleasers.

While America got all rapt and wrapped up in its politics, China quietly channeled its energies and resources such that when Biden takes over what remains of America's credibility and might, it shall have had all its initiatives and resources calculated and mapped out. There will be a new world order for Biden to step into and it may slap him silly to discover just exactly what it is.

The Philippines, whose elections America used to demonize as the epitome of fraud, violence, and bribery, now finds itself in the strange position of its tormentor now being the tormented. Now it is the Philippines that should be sending election observers to America to ensure clean and honest elections in light of Trump's fraud allegations.

The shoe is on the other foot, so to speak. Hypocrisy has finally been stripped clean by reality. And the reality is that, shorn of its dollars and guns, America is as plain and ordinary as the rest of us. Wealth and might do not the higher moral ground reserve. America is not always right. It is not always first. America does not always have.

No less than the American presidential election, that showcase of democracy in action, has proven the true depth, the true measure of its relevance. For the US to descend to such depths is an eye-opener although not totally unexpected. Anything that stays on top for too long can have nowhere else to go but down. For the Philippines here in the Asian geopolitical theatre, it is time to shop for another lead actor.