Saturday, February 27, 2010

The End of the American Empire

To me it is clear that the end of the American Empire as the strongest power on earth is coming to an end. This is no profound observation. The reasons are clear.

The top two reasons are, in my opinion, these two facts:

1) Congress is broken. It no longer seems capable of doing the people's business. Strife between the Democrats and the Republicans has made much meaningful legislation impossible. For this, I blame the Republicans more thsan the Democrats, though there is blame on each side. Witness what has happened to healthcare. Can Obama move on to the reconciliation process and get something done ? He seems so afraid to do this, despite the fact that it has been done several dozen times. Reconciliation doesn't seem likely.

2) The media is incapab;le of covering the news and sees itself either as entertainment or as a vehicle reporting largely inconsequential fluff, with little in-depth analysis. The media tries very hard to manufacture consequences to relatively unimportant matters. On MSNBC just a few minutes one of the commentators stated, "Just because we don't know anythying seriously wrong to have developed doesn't mean that it hasn't." (My quote is not entirely accurate, but the gist of the meaning is.) The media work hard to make unimportant matters seem important. They spend most of their time feeding on other people's unhappiness ("Ms. Jones, how did you feel when you saw your brother gunned down ?"). A great example of a crisis manufactured by the media is the recnt recall of vehicles by Toyota. Other car companies (Ford, for instance) have recalled larger numbers of vehicles. This blown-up crisis is probably the result of ignorane and a desire for ratings rather than Japan-bashing or s serious examination of facts.

With neither Congress nor the media are working as they should, the American Empire is falling.

2 comments:

  1. Congress is broken but I blame Democrats more and here is why. Obama wants his healthcare bill passed PERIOD. The other 15 bills already passed by the House to help with economic reform are all in limbo because nothing can progress til Obama gets his bill passed. Funny thing about that is the Democrats don't want the Obama bill either. So while Obama's jobs bill sits, blocked by both Democrat and Republican, Democrats block the 15 house bills from hitting the floor of the senate.
    Then there is the "SUPER COMMITTEE" which is wrong on many levels. They were another method of blocking bills that would help us recover. I see Obama as trying to promote failure. How can we make progress if the bills are blocked from the senate or locked up in a super committee away from the politicians who all have to agree to the legislature anyway? Didn't Obama promise us transparency? How is locking the doors of the super committee transparent? This closed door policy Obama promised to rid us of is worse now than before his election to office. He does not want you to see what is going on in congress because it would set even more people against him. The people who supported him are asking him to step down so that Democrats are not destroyed by his failure as president. They want Hillary to run in 2012 because she does not have congress set against. Lets face it. Obama did not follow any of his promises to the people (check out youtube for the Presidents quotes during campaign and after election if you want to see the lies)and the lies about conservatives, insults directed at the American people, and his support for the terrorist organization OWS, have turned Republicans against him. Why would they not? He and his staff are still attacking the Tea Party when their only crime has been to peacefully disagree with Obama and to promote legislature that they believe can help the American People, Agree or not with their ideas, they never shut down roads or businesses, they did not trash parks and riot against police, they did not use racial slurs against any nationality, and they have not attacked little kids. OWS has done all of this and they think the Tea Party got preferential treatment because only OWS members are getting arrested. They do not have the intelligence to to make the distinction between lawful and illegal so they call it unfair treatment. Obama still supports OWS who want to shut this country down and you mostly blame Republicans?
    Sorry if I disagree.

    ReplyDelete
  2. First line is supposed to be jobs bill, not healthcare bill. Sorry. 5 am and not fully awake yet.

    ReplyDelete