The logic is - the stupider the US Government - riven by internal dissension, driven by narrow special interests etc. - the more other powers - and even the EU will gain by comparison - especially if they are effectively led in terms of their own national interest - as Russia, China, India etc. seem to be now.
My major concern with that scenario is that:
The last couple of election cycles in the US really haven't been anything special in US history. Vote stealing, gerrymandering, a jingoistic press and an electorate - or parts of same - with the cognitive skills of dead sheep have been standard issue in US politics since the end of the Civil War.
What changed - partly as a result of wishful thinking - was the realisation that better choices were possible. The earlier labour movements were powerful but reactive. The DFHs were proactive but not nearly as powerful. Even so - there was an understanding that a better reality was possible.
That's still around, but it's been marginalised as an extremist view in the US.
Given what's likely to happen next, I wouldn't be surprised if there were parts of the US where it's about to become mainstream again.
...the most advanced democracy in the world.
How can this phrase be made to drip with sufficient irony, sarcasm and venom to convey the pathetic standard which it describes? As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
What?? Why're you looking at me like that? It does sound like an empty slogan, and I've just been travelling for seven hours straight...
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
