Thande
Donor
For those that don't know, Juche is North Korea's ideology, which is basically focused around isolationism and self-reliance. Actually it's probably not the best comparison here because I'm not suggesting a totalitarian United States here, but never mind.
There is a strong ideological slant to the U.S. national character - one which does not necessarily transcend that into political ideology, as would be considered populism - favouring self-reliance and isolationism. This is not by any means xenophobia, but rather apathy towards the outside world, and sometimes resentment when that world intrudes into one's concerns. I am of course overgeneralising here and it is certainly more true of the American interior than the seaboards, but I think it still differentiates the USA from, say, Canada.
In other words, while the majority of Americans seem in favour of a free market economy in theory, they see no contradiction in protectionist policies to 'protect American jobs', and a lot of people seem to consider the issue of the trade deficit with China objectionable not simply because it is unequal, but because it makes the USA dependent upon another country.
So, while it would be something of a leap for this attitude to transcend to the political and financial elite of the United States, I was wondering if we could see a situation where the USA is both isolationist and economically self-sufficient, with trade with other countries either actually banned or at least discouraged by very high tariffs. The difference with North Korea, of course, is that the USA is a large, diverse and democratic country with considerably natural and agricultural resources, so it would actually be capable of feeding itself and so on - albeit probably at a lower standard of living than OTL.
So is there a way to get to this situation? Perhaps starting with the current of isolationism pre-WW2 (the America Firsters and so on) combined with a different approach to combatting the Great Depression?
There is a strong ideological slant to the U.S. national character - one which does not necessarily transcend that into political ideology, as would be considered populism - favouring self-reliance and isolationism. This is not by any means xenophobia, but rather apathy towards the outside world, and sometimes resentment when that world intrudes into one's concerns. I am of course overgeneralising here and it is certainly more true of the American interior than the seaboards, but I think it still differentiates the USA from, say, Canada.
In other words, while the majority of Americans seem in favour of a free market economy in theory, they see no contradiction in protectionist policies to 'protect American jobs', and a lot of people seem to consider the issue of the trade deficit with China objectionable not simply because it is unequal, but because it makes the USA dependent upon another country.
So, while it would be something of a leap for this attitude to transcend to the political and financial elite of the United States, I was wondering if we could see a situation where the USA is both isolationist and economically self-sufficient, with trade with other countries either actually banned or at least discouraged by very high tariffs. The difference with North Korea, of course, is that the USA is a large, diverse and democratic country with considerably natural and agricultural resources, so it would actually be capable of feeding itself and so on - albeit probably at a lower standard of living than OTL.
So is there a way to get to this situation? Perhaps starting with the current of isolationism pre-WW2 (the America Firsters and so on) combined with a different approach to combatting the Great Depression?