Global Elites Want to ‘Manage’ the Decline of the US and the West, by Kristina Wong.

“Our elites live in a world where everything is comfortable for them,” [said pollster and political analyst Pat Caddell]. “I believe that behind the mindset … is a belief that the country is in decline and their job is to manage the decline.”

Caddell said the elites in the United States have bought into the idea that China is on the inevitable rise to global hegemony, replacing the U.S., and it is their job to manage that rise peacefully.

“This is the whole Thucydides Trap thing, ” [Stephen] Bannon said, referring to the idea that a declining superior power’s paranoia about a rising power will drive them to war.

Bannon said that, according to that belief, “How you avoid war is to manage the decline and make sure you’re the junior partner, but steering the bigger partner to peace and prosperity.”

“That’s exactly what the elites in this country are doing,” he said. “Your elites want to manage the decline because they got theirs. You’re not in the room, you’re not in the deal.”

hat-tip Scott of the Pacific