...beiing on top and being continously spit at from the sidelines comes in a package!
Russians got tired of this, throughout the Soviet experiment, and in response successfully blew up the Soviet Union.
Everybody had delusions back then. Ukraine expected to become "the second France", because it was Europe's largest country, with a population of 50M people. Russia, thought it would be embraced by the West, and would rapidly become prosperous - freed from the burden of supporting various Cubas, North Koreas, and Bulgarias.
Now, thirty years later - we're putting it back together, piece by piece.
America might be going through something similar.
Unlike Russia and Great Britain, however, America just might be fine without all the tagalongs. That's sort of the uncomfortable truth. America really doesn't need the world, as much as the world needs America. So next time you tell PAK or Novichok to "open their eyes" and "turn on their brains", think about this. America is a beast, in terms of productivity and innovation, and it has the largest and wealthiest consumer market in the world.
Even today, trade is a measly 25% of US GDP. For Germany this number approaches 100%. For China and Russia it's close to 50%.