The alpha male of the world order, the US, is neither willing nor capable of defending the steering system. It has ceased being the indispensable nation. The streak of idealism has disappeared, forcing the US to fall back on raw power despite the talk about soft power. Moral authority has slipped away, no longer available to support and substantiate US policies and interventions.
The malaise starts at home. The Americans no longer trust their own model and no longer express willingness to "export" it. ...JoergenOerstroemMoeller,HuffPo
Sometimes we can take bad news and turn it into the kind of energy we need to keep ourselves alive. Probably not this time. Moeller analyzes America's choices and finds few if any.
We were probably many miles down the wrong path even before we unleashed corporate power, but the corruption and the unhealthy nationalism that gave us the Bush administration almost certainly finished us off. "Faith," "liberty," and "values" were openly clubbed to deathlike baby seals along the Canadian Maritime coastline all in the name of "vital economic activity."
And -- speaking of vital economic activity -- how about our Congress?
Unfortunately for Western democracies, especially for the U.S. Congress, a new phenomenon, which may be labelled oligarch democracy to borrow from abroad, is gaining ground. In 1986 winners of a seat in the House of Representatives spent $360,000, skyrocketing to $1.6 million, in 2012 -- an increase of 344 percent. For the Senate the corresponding figures (all adjusted for inflation) are $6.4 million and $10.4 million -- up 62 percent. Add to this the amount spent on lobbying. Over the last decade oil, gas, and coal lobbied for around $100 million per year with the overwhelming part going to the Republicans; over the two years 2008-2009, during the financial crisis, lobbying by the financial sector has been calculated at more than $800 million. It takes a brave person to maintain that under such circumstances the political system and individual politicians have managed to wriggle themselves free of influence exercised by donors and lobbyists. It questions the very character of liberal representative democracy expected to reflect the social strata of the population; the money factor rules that out. ...JoergenOerstroemMoeller,HuffPo
"Liberal representative democracy"? What was that all about?
