WE THE PEOPLE by Caveman Chuck Coker Flickr
"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded." Montesquieu, (Charles Louis de Secondat) (1689-1755)
"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work." Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German politician and future German Chancellor, Mein Kampf, chap. 2, 1925
"I believe that God wants me to be president." George W. Bush, American 43rd president, speech in Washington D.C., June 1, 2004
"This economy of ours is on a solid foundation." George W. Bush, American 43rd president, January 4, 2008 (N.B.: the U.S. economy was about to enter into recession.)
"I believe that the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators." Sen. John McCain, March 20, 2003
"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn't that ironic?" Sarah Palin, American politician and former governor of Alaska, (admitting that her family used to get treatment in Canada's single-payer health care system, despite having demonized such government-run programs as socialized medicine that will lead to death-panel-like rationing, March 6, 2010.)
"The Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands." Michele Bachmann, Rep. of Minnesota and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, (on the question of submitting to the authority of her husband, 2006). Rep. Bachmann is also a graduate of Oral Roberts University.
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
The Bible (New Testament), 1 Timothy 2:11-12
"Think of the American economy as a large apartment block. A century ago--even 30 years ago--it was the object of envy. But in the last generation its character has changed. The penthouses at the top keep getting larger and larger. The apartments in the middle are feeling more and more squeezed and the basement has flooded. To round it off, the elevator is no longer working. That broken elevator is what gets people down the most." Lawrence Katz, Harvard University economist, 2010.
The American Economy is in the Doldrums, the American Political System is Dysfunctional and Paralyzed
Around the world, many are baffled by what's happening to the United States. It seems that all at once the wheels are going off the cart. The American economy is in the doldrums, the American political system is dysfunctional and paralyzed, and a series of elective, far away foreign wars is ruining the country.
The U.S. economy used to be an engine of economic growth and the American political system used to be a well-oiled checks-and-balances machine that was geared toward progress and that could accommodate both leadership and compromise. Moreover, Americans can be proud that their constitution, at least on paper, is one of the best in the world, having been crafted by enlightened founders who believed in individual and democratic freedom.
In this short article, I will identify what I think to be the two major causes of America's current decline. (I welcome comments.)
The first cause is a moral one: it is related to the widespread corruption that permeates many institutions and sectors of the U.S. society, the most corrupt of them all being the political system and the corporate system. It is no accident that the epicenter where these two corrupt systems meet is at the Pentagon, an agency that reports upon reports picture as a cesspool of corruption.
The result of that widespread corruption is that the United States is now generating a sub-standard class of politicians to administer its affairs who are not the servants of the common good, but who rather serve happily the narrow money interests that finance them. The U.S. corporate elite, for the most part, has abandoned all loyalty to its country while it roams the world in order to make short-term profits at all costs and avoid paying taxes in its country of origin.
