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.