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American Politics and the Lack of New Ideas
by Edmund Ross
The election is about two primary components: American humiliation in the Middle East and the confounding economic problem of slow economic growth coupled with rising inflationary forces and high oil prices. Rising health care coupled with insufficient availability is another major issue as is the divide between the white working class and the rest of the population. Unfortunately, this is the not the description of the 2008 presidential campaign. It is a description of the 1980 campaign and it shows how little the nation has progressed in the past quarter century. If anything the issues are more complex and solutions more difficult because of the disintegration of American productive ability and the adding of $50 trillion in debt.
The biggest indictment of the American political system is its inability to actually get anything done. Jimmy Carter took office trying to restore credibility to the office still reeling from Watergate. Four years later he exited having achieved almost nothing, leaving the presidency in the same pathetic state. Ronald Reagan took office trying to reduce the size, growth rate and intrusiveness of the federal government. He left it bigger, less efficient, and more intrusive than ever. All of the problems America faces today are ones exacerbated by the Reagan Administration’s tactic of addressing problems by shifting them to a later date. Ironically, when economic sand built in the 1980s began to sink it brought down Reagan’s Republican successor.
In the end, the American presidency is lost by the candidate who has the most mud stick to him. Does anyone remember what the first Bush actually supported or what changes Bill Clinton was proposing in 1992? We remember Michael Dukakis not surviving the Willie Horton debacle and the first Bush not surviving the near end of campaign revival of the Iran-Contra debate and an economy showing the results of the Reagan era patchwork. The American political system seems incapable of producing candidates that can do anything more than stomp on their competition. Once in office they begin the spiral down until the public is glad to be rid of them. All along the real problems that face the nation continue along unaddressed. In the end, it is the American public that is to blame (at least that portion that gets swayed by the basest elements of political slander). As long slander and sleaze prove effective there is not incentive for politicians to change. Of course, slander and sleaze do not produce good leaders, as proven by 28 years of futility.
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