Is America broken beyond repair?

[Cyrano]

About 30 years ago, the Republican Party set out to “Starve the beast.” Translated into English, that means that they set out to destroy big government. And it seems to me that they’re succeeding beyond their wildest dreams.

In truth, the government is probably bigger today than at any time in our history. But it’s not set up to serve the needs of the American people. It serves the interests of, what George W. Bush called, “the haves and the have mores.” Government’s ability to deliver on economic security, and the health and well being of most Americans is virtually non-existent.

Want a manufacturing job? Move to China.

Need an organ transplant you can’t afford? Try one of the European countries.

Want to earn a good living? Become a Wall Street vampire or a banker.

Want funding to start your own business? Borrow it from a rich relative.

Want a decent education? Pitch a tent in a well-stocked library and read every book there.

Want to try your hand at farming? Join one of the corporate-owned mega farms.

Want a better life for your children? Try prayer.

Want some tranquility and security in your old age? Consider suicide.

Want a clean, livable planet? Start building your own star ship.

Want the country we once were? Sorry. Too late.

This may sound cynical and wrong to some, and correct to others. But it’s my view of modern day America. However, if you have a way to repair what’s gone wrong with our country, there are millions who would like to hear it.

[Oregone]

1. Yes it is

It needs to be broken completely and built from scratch. The problem is, your new boss may just resemble the old one, and a whole lotta of pain can transpire in the meantime.

[villager]

6. Hopefully *some* of the smaller, regionally-divided countries and polities

...that will replace the U.S., once it finishes imploding, will be kinder places.

Though as Oregone notes, getting there's not gonna be easy...

[kentuck]

2. But they didn't mean to kill the goose that laid the golden egg...

but they may have done just that?

[Xenotime]

3. Yes. Time to re-write the constitution so it is more fair and doesn't favor the wealthy

[immune]

14. A rewrite?

Since it was primarily wealthy aristocrats who wrote the first one, what would prevent today's corporate bosses from writing whatever took its place? Its not as if they wouldn't water down all the happy words with wiggle words to suit their goals, just like they did the first time around. And just like they now do with every watered down bill that we are constantly assured is in our best interests, even though they know we know otherwise.

Question is: who would be trustworthy enough to write a new constitution?

[Xenotime]

33. A world forum with the brightest minds would be trustworthy enough.

That way the law would be fair and just and hopefully change the way the world views the US.

[SunnySong]

41. Good lord no... the Fourth and first amendments protect us every day

Maybe enforcing the constitution may be a better idea.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Short term return on investment always favors empire...

The manufacturing economy dies and the nation becomes more martial as it needs to defend said empire.

And then the empire falls of its own weight.

Happens.Every.Time

[Cyrano]

7. Yep. Checkmate.

[RKP5637]

9. So true, and many many many examples in history. Of course, Americans are

known for having short memories.

[T Wolf]

IF we were able to start RIGHT NOW, it might be salvagable. Problem is, we have to

wait until a considerable percentage of the population dies off and that takes time.

The rulers/owners of Amerika will not willingly give up their power and the current population is unwilling to take it from them.

[SargeUNN]

5. I fear it is

I said during the elections on my radio show that it wouldn't matter if Washington, Lincoln, the 2 Roosevelts, or any decent president was in office that things had gotten so fascist they wouldn't be able to do much to change it. I didn't realize them though how bad it really was with even part of the left getting upset when what steps can be pushed through to improve draws disapprove.

[truedelphi]

26. I have yet to witness any of these "steps

can be pushed through."

In stead, we have witnessed a President who never made any stand at all on anything.

His main talking point last year at this time was, "Well, although Single Payer Universal Health care would be the best and most logical way to obtain health care reform, IF WE WERE STARTING FROM SCRATCH, since we aren't we have to find some approach that is uniquely American and that leaves the system we have in place."

Due to not having any decent media people, no one parsed the ridiculousness of that statement. How smart is it to leave the system we have in place, if we need reform? Does this man really think we are all that stupid:?


Apparently he does. His first week in office, he was able to install Rahm Emmanuel, one of the chief architects of NAFTA, as his Chief of Staff, despite his running on an ANTI-NAFTA campaign. he kept Kissinger in power. He continues two wars, both of which the average American is sick of.

And all this, while Bernanke\Geithner(Paulson) policies continue to devastate the middle incomed. While our cities create laws to punish those who feed homeless people ($ 300 fine proposed in Miami.) And San Francisco plans to criminalize anyone caught sitting or lying on the street. (Gawd help you if you had a heart attack on your early Am commute.)

[yurbud]

8. We have returned to the pre-New Deal status quo

Essentially, since the end of the Cold War, the financial elite no longer feels the need to tolerate even a moderately comfortable middle class and social safety net.

During the Cold War, they probably figured it was the price they had to pay to keep communism from being too attractive, and Europe was allowed a greater degree of socialism because they were closer to the ''threat.''

Now not only is our very mild social safety net being shredded, but Goldman Sachs and their ilk seem intent on tearing up the European one as well.

[rfranklin]

10. The library is closed due to austerity measures...

The cops have been furloughed. The fire department is closed. The public school is now run by the Gates Foundation using teachers recruited off the street--no experience needed.

[Subdivisions]

11. Yes, and not just America. The entire world is broken beyond repair. We have

backed ourselves into a corner: we are now in an era of delcining oil production while simultaneously attempting to continue business as usual using tax-based economic stimulus and austerity measures to grow the economy. It's not going to work.

[stray cat]

12. Define what you mean by repaired? Things were not great during the civil war....

or the great depression or during slavery or at many times in history. Is it worse than two years ago - then probably yes - will it be back to as good as two years ago - who knows?

[RKP5637]

13. And too many in America are too ignorant to figure out what is going on... instead, they

cling to the words of fools like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh and the herd, and religious scams. I do think we have now gone over the tipping point. Americans rather than helping each other seem for many intent on devouring each other. Eventually, we will erode to a police state to make sure the aggressively opulent can maintain status quo, and greed will prevail more than ever. And with the investigate report by the Washington Post, "Top Secret America," it does make one wonder who is watching whom and us or them...

[bobbolink]

24. To be fair, we haven't done a very good job of reaching out to the "swing voters"

and finding ways of getting the truth out to more people.

Way back when, people like us organized Teach-Ins, started underground papers that reached beyond the choir, and other like projects.

For the most part, we talk to each other, and criticize others as "ignorant".

We own some of this.

[RKP5637]

25. We all share in this, but many RW'ers turn a deaf ear, I think. n/t

[bobbolink]

28. There are many more people than "progressives" and the RWers.

There are many who are "reachable", but we must be honest and admit we haven't really tried very hard.

Its much easier to blame the media.

[RKP5637]

30. One difficulty is division sells well in the media, an attention getter, and is

very profitable as individuals like Beck and Limbaugh can, of course, attest too.

[Cyrano]

32. About the only tool we have with which to reach out is the internet.

Virtually all of what we laughingly call the main stream media is owned and/or controlled by big business. And this means their coverage tilts to the right at best, or spreads outright lies at worst.

We're fortunate to have Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers and a few others. But they are not nearly enough to counter the avalanche of disinformation and propaganda spread by our opponents/enemies every hour of every day of the year.

I fully agree that we haven't gotten "our" message across to the vast majority of Americans. And if we could, I think that at the very least, we might start to level the playing field.

But how to accomplish this is an almost insurmountable problem.

[bobbolink]

34. As I said previously, there ARE other proven methods.

One being the Teach-Ins that we did in the Vietnam era.

Those reached a LOT of otherwise uninvolved people, and were very effective.

We just don't seem to be willing to put our heads together and brainstorm new and different and effective methods.

That doesn't mean we CAN'T do it.

It means we haven't.

[reformist2]

15. We need to dare to raise taxes.

The Republican notion that we have "run out of money" is preposterous. We just are too afraid to push through the tax increases needed to pay for what we are spending.

[Octafish]

16. You were in Philadelphia, July 4, 1776.

In spirit or in person, can't tell which. Thank you for an outstanding essay, Cyrano: Ever word, TRUTH.

[damntexdem]

17. No, it's broken and seemingly incapable of self-repair.

Being beyond repair and simply failing to self-repair are distinct things.

[Orsino]

18. Theoretically, no.

In practice, probably.

Fixing America will require a new mindset--one we show no signs of adopting yet.

[Individualist]

19. When a one party system took control of government, it was doomed to fail.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. The concept was broken from the start, 2 centuries ago...

not the liberty and rights stuff-- that was fine Enlightenment thinking, for the most part. Even most of the government stuff was leading the world.

No, it was the fundamental concept of "I got Mine" that was infused though it all. The US was born in a mindset that you had to grab too much in order to get your share. The Louisiana Purchase was one smart move by Jefferson, but while it doubled the size of the nation, nothing was said about what to do with all that new land. Nobody back then had ever seen a country just double in size overnight, and nobody thought much about what to do with it.

We bought Alaska, "bought" at gunpoint the Mexican properties we wanted and hadn't yet stolen and chiseled our way into Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico and a few other places, while beating the crap out of a decrepit Spain. Shit, we damn near owned the Philippines until someone noticed how much we'd lose trying to run the place.

There were people living there before we owned these places? Well, fuck 'em, they're in the way.

So, whaddawe do now? No place to expand to. No new territories or frontiers to chase the indigenous population out of. We could, for the umpteenth time, threaten to invade Canada, but that would get a little messy. Mexico? Easier, but expensive, and what would we do there anyway. we got what we want from them years ago.

So, we are left with a country based on geographic expansion and everyone with two hands using them to grab what they can.

But not much left to grab. Just piles of cash.

[southmost]

42. +1 brazillion

'nuff said

[Newest Reality]

21. Systemic collapse

is imminent. We are well along the way.

Personal and local strategies are becoming more relevant for survival.

The rules of the game are and will continue to change and part of that game is to continue the reliance on maintaining an unsupported facade via the corporate message/massage of mass media, which is only one tentacle of the complex control grid.

In other words while you might still think you are playing Monopoly, the game makers change the board and now its Scrabble, and then its chess. Those who are not watching the changes are sitting at the table with their funny money and throwing their dice on a different board that has nothing to do with either. In that case, you lose.

[bobbolink]

37. "In that case, you lose."

Yes, poor people always lose.

Not that it matters.

[bvar22]

22. There IS a blueprint for repair.

Look to Latin America for the Blueprint.

The Populist Reforms sweeping across Latin America are nothing short of Bloodless Revolutions.
Transparent, verifiable elections are a pre-requisite, and unfortunately, we don't have those here.

At some point in this decline, the Teabaggers, the vanishing Middle Class, and The Left WILL realize that WE have more in common with each other than with our Ruling Class & their pet politicians of BOTH Parties. That Tipping Point gets closer every day.

Until that time, I'm going to keep on Living in the Woods and growing my own food.

[taught_me_patience]

23. We are still one of the most diverse countries in the world

Which makes it a great place to immigrate to.

[LWolf]

27. No, but what evolves out of this corrupt mess,

if and when it evolves in a positive direction, will be significantly different from the America people are familiar with.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Just another empire bogged down in the graveyard of empires and going broke.

[branders seine]

31. the democratic apparatus is completely dysfunctional.

this means only extra-democratic action can change a system that is as you describe.

[G_j]

35. required repair will not happen nt

[2Design]

36. I remember when the soviet union collapse and many said well that proves

democracy the last one standing was the right one - I thought then - no we have to collapse too unless this changes because it is not working

Well it is broken
I am afraid beyond repair
Our congress critters on both sides of the aisle are bought
Our supreme court was bought and appointed the last reign

We no longer have check and balances
We have huge propoganda machines willing to diss anything that is good for the people and calling anything but what it is

Our democratic leaders are failing us, big time

I do not think there is a fix

Those of us who were loyal and patriotic have had that used and misused now with flags flying through the night (wrong behavior but rw behavior) or on all dealerships cars or tshirts or jeans or whereever and much of it is just plain wrong and disrespectful

[sendero]

38. Our economy....

.. or more to the point our actual currency, is hanging by a thread. The Federal Reserve has pulled out ALL THE STOPS, zero interest rates, huge infusions of cash to the banking system, endless jawboning and still the economy spins slowly and inexorably into a deflationary morass.

Who knows what helicopter Ben has left. Not very much. This country is the walking wounded and there is almost zero chance of ever having the kind of economy most of us are used to within the next decade or two at least.

I won't bother with the usual list of suggestions, those that are going to do anything have by now.

[spanone]

39. it appears we've taken it down a strange, twisting road

[KamaAina]

40. Where would I find this well-stocked library?

Here in San Jose, we just barely managed to avoid having branch hours cut to three days a week. :scared: