Divided States of America: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation

[sysop]

The United States is frittering away its role as a model for the rest of the world. The political system is plagued by an absurd level of hatred, the economy is stagnating and the infrastructure is falling into a miserable state of disrepair. On this election eve, many Americans are losing faith in their country's future.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-865295.html

[Eleos]

America was founded by European Christians with a strong sense of fairness and a generosity of spirit, qualities which eventually laid the foundation for failure. At first they did not extend their rights to the slave population because it was evident to them, even to Jefferson and Lincoln, that such were the cultural differences between blacks and whites that they could not live together harmoniously. Over time they have allowed these qualities of generosity and fairness to be exploited, subduing misgivings and hoping for the best, until the swell of Third World immigration after the 1965 Immigration Act and the swarms of illegals crossing the Mexican border have overwhelmed the Republic. The USA now has an uneasy assortment of minorities, who simply do not have the wherewithal to contribute in the manner of the original settlers.

Look at how Japan dealt with last year’s earthquake and tsunami, something thousands of times more destructive than Katrina or Sandy. People who feel affinity with their neighbours do not loot and cheat and mug.

I am pretty astonished at how one-sided the article is, with a blanket espousal of the Democratic position and a disingenuous interpretation of the Republican one.

[SHBasse]

What is generally not accepted is that the decline started with the opening up of the western economies and the export of firms and jobs to the Far East. The first vissible result was the stagnation of the middleclass.
For many years the accelerating decline was made invisible because of lax monetary policy.
See "The fundamental causes of the crisis"
http://unifiedscience2.blogspot.com/...-downturn.html

[tatianafromitaly]

Phenomenal article. I wish some America's media had valuable writers and factual JOURNALISTS to report on the US state of mind (or lack thereof). Ones has to resort to read international and reliable blogs - like Der Spiegel here - to fully acknowledge the pathetic politics and hyperbole that took over the massive 100% owned conservative media in Amerikkka - or just go online to read independents American blogs........Unfortunately the average american is too stupid or too ill-iterated pursue the reality behind the horrific Myth Rmoney.
Mitt Romney is a homophobic bigot of epic proportions,has no concept that people of color even exist, and has lied pathologically throughout the campaign. He is ready to take the US into war immediately with Iran, Syria, and, if necessary, Egypt and Libya. He must be even more dishonest than Richard Nixon, which suggests an underlying psychiatric disorder. His business experience amounts to destroying American jobs and sending them to China. Is this what you mean you say that Republicans can almost "smell it." The rest of us have been smelling it since Romney opened his lying mouth. Women, of course, can look forward to his outlawing of birth control pills, much less abortion.

[Ernest Yates]

The Unites States is--
--number one in the degree of political, economic, and social freedom claimed by its citizens
--number one in the number of museums and libraries
--number one in the number of Nobel prizes won
--number one in the number of Olympic medals
--number one in GNP
--number one in the number of major colleges and universities
--number one in the number of books published, musical recordings produced, world-wide cinema attendance; hence
--number one in world-wide cultural power
--number one in military power
--number one in--oh hell, i could go on, but you get the gist.
Europeans are not noted for congratulating Americans on their ongoing achievements. (It's also very easy to find Americans who support any particular point of view.) The writer confuses episodes (storms, political uncertainty) with ongoing irreversible trend. Or is this just wishful thinking? If so, how ungenerous! How uncharitable!

[mae]

"In the show's brilliant premiere, he is asked at a panel discussion to describe why America is the greatest country in the world..... and number four in exports."



Didn't Der Spiegel fact check any of the figures from this supposedly brilliant show?

The USA is ranked number 2 in exports, not 4th as erroenously claimed. See link for 2011 below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ies_by_exports


I suspect the other figures have been manipulated as well to present the US in the worst possible light as well.

Of course presenting lies of this supposedly brilliant show as facts is worthy of an you know what award.

Go on and give yourselves a medal for it.

[Jim Sherman]

I found your article intriguing. On the one hand, your criticisms of the state of America are valid. However, I should point out that Europe is in a far worse condition. The entire world is coming through a severe recession, and it is not one engineered by the U.S. alone.

On the economy, the U.S. continues to be more than 30% wealthier per capita than any Western Europe state, including Germany (taking the banking rich, Luxembourg, and oil rich Norway out of the list). Second, the U.S. has outperformed Europe in the last decade in terms of growth. Third, the nation is second to none in innovation and entrepreneurship. Myself, as a two time starter of companies, can attest to the "land of opportunity" being quite vibrant. It may be more challenged today than before but the opportunity still remains.

The political gridlock that you highlight is real, but I, unlike you, am optimistic that more moderate Republicans will sooner or later retake their party's leadership. Obama will win the election and the Republicans will slowly realize they cannot be the party of the far right. I believe that Europe has more to fear from its own right wing zealots than we do.

The deficit and debt, while extremely important, are manageable. It is more about political will to trim entitlements, defense, and boost revenue. We won't do it in the nose dive fashion of Germany, which is causing economic decline in Europe, but in a glide path. I suspect a grand bargain will be coming soon to achieve just that. I agree that our spend on infrastructure versus defense should be flipped -- we should spend more on the former and less on the latter. It is a matter of priorities and there must be a shift in this. I am hopeful that with Obama's budget, we will see a decline in defense spend as a percentage of GNP.

While you highlight challenges in America (the debt, infrastructure, inequality), you fail to acknowledge whether America can steer in a better direction. The country is adding more jobs per month than all of Europe combined. The housing crisis has ended and new construction is growing rapidly. The stock market is at a level last seen before the 2008 crash. Consumers have paid down a good amount of personal debt. While unemployment is relatively high, the economic signs are encouraging.I cannot say the same for Europe.

On foreign policy, I think you totally miss the big picture. You assume that because we exited from Iraq and, soon, Afghanistan, that this is somehow indicative of some weakness or failure of America. We did not fail at all. We went into Iraq to overthrow a dictator. We did that. (It was a mistake to go in, as we now know, but to many Iraqis today who are free, they would not agree with that).

We gave them a chance to build a democracy, and unfortunately, they, like the Afghanis, are more interested in fighting each other than in building a prosperous state together.It isn't our fault. It is theirs. We gave these countries an opportunity that has been wasted. We have liberated many lands but we cannot do nation building when there is no competent local partner. So, withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan is merely recognition that our work is done (two brutal regimes have been removed), and that we need not invest further in countries that are unlikely to be models of democracy. As for other regions, does one really think E. Europe is free today were it not for America's arms race with the USSR, pushing the latter towards implosion?

Or the so-called Arab Spring. I am mystified how on the one hand, some people deride American intervention and then crave it in the next breadth.... how some writers, such as yourself, can comment on America's waning power, while not acknowledging, that power does not come from invasion only but also by persuasion. Intelligent American leadership helped to nurture democratic change in Tunisia, Egypt (does anyone thank the Pentagon for calling up Mubarak's generals to strongly urge them to avoid violence?), Libya (could Ghadafi have been overthrown without US cruise missiles?), Syria (more to come soon), and more. The US has never been in a stronger position with its foreign policy. Bin Laden is dead, Al Quada is greatly weakened, and there are all of 3 or 4 anti-US/ anti-Western countries today (compare that to 10 or 20 years ago). Democracy, human rights, and the free market are recognized as preferred political and economic systems (and core American values, even if some don't wish to acknowledge that). It seems that America has made steady progress in foreign affairs over the past decades. The U.S. remains the only superpower and, unfortunately, remains the only party capable of forging meaningful action during a crisis.

So, while I respect your critique, I do not share your pessimism on where the country is heading since I have confidence we will take the necessary steps. I am not sure I have the same confidence in Europe.

[stealthnameless]

All nations have ebbs and flows but just because a nation is ebbing doesn't necessarily mean it is in decline. I would argue that the United States of America is on the verge of the next big boom. The article Divided States Of America Notes On the Decline Of A Great Nation by Speigel would argue that the U.S. is declining economically, financially and due to a divided two party political system the U.S. will be unable to solve it's problems. However I would chose to disagree. I am an American high school student that spends a great deal of time studying geopolitics, military history and macroeconomics and from what I have seen the U.S. is once again poised for greatness.

The Two Party System
In America many citizens are concerned about how our governments two main political party’s The Republican party and The Democratic party rarely see eye to eye but that is not necessary a bad thing. Through out American history there has always been in some form a two party system. Even before the drafting of United States constitution there were deep political divisions. There were major political divisions as early as 1777 when the two party’s of the day the Federalists and Antifederalists argued whether or not to even have a comprehensive central government. And while many U.S. citizens are disappointed with a two party system many Americans would rather have a two party system rather than a single party system which we see being overly powerful and oppressive. And despite the implementation of a two party political system America has always been able to resolve whatever crisis’s pop up.

The deadlock of power in Washington may even soon come to an end. Quietly rumors are circulating that the Republican Party may not even survive the current election. The Republican Party has so far limped along uniting social conservatives and Libertarians but it is unclear whether the Republican Party can still unite the two polarizing groups. If Mitt Romney loses the election who is currently the only candidate that can unite the Social Conservatives and the Libertarians the Republican party may dissolve. Even if Mitt Romney does win the continuing existence of the Republican Party is not guaranteed and really the only glue that holds the party together is their mutual fear of the Democrats.

The Myth of Americas permanent decline
The article Divided States Of America Notes On the Decline Of A Great Nation by Speigel says “The reality of life in America so greatly contradicts the claim -- albeit one that has always been exaggerated -- to be the "greatest nation on earth," that even the most ardent patriots must be overcome with doubt.” May I ask you which is country is military the most powerful nation on earth? The answer is The United States of America and while this may sound like nationalistic American warmongering it’s the truth. The fact of the matter is America is so overwhelmingly powerful that other nations can’t dictate American foreign policy. The U.S. Navy by itself is so powerful that it can blockade any country on earth and still protect it’s own shores. Even “Great China” fears the United States navy, which according to Chinese Communist Party Official LI Qun “has strategically encircled The Peoples Republic [of China].” This overwhelming power means that the world’s economies rely on this system for protection because the United States can guarantee merchant shipping safety. Without American Naval protection nations economies across the world would slump due to the fact nations could not guarantee their nations shipping safety. The world needs the American Navy to regulate and protect trade.

The article by Spiegel says that in the long run the U.S. is doomed because of low American student test scores and says that the next generation of Americans will not be able to create economic success for America. “[America] is seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science…” However America has never been first in test scores and we never will. America was worrying about low-test scores in the late 50’s and 60’s when American’s realized that their kids were lagging behind Soviet students. However I think most would agree in the long run American students proved to be more innovative that Soviet students. America has always been an innovative country and it will continue to be so.

[powermeerkat]

An article written from typically leftist position:

shamelessly promoting Obama on the eve of US presidential election, and critisizing Republicans for all US's ills. And quotes only Democrat "experts" to boot, such as Albright and Kupchan while none from the other side.

It would be nice if Der Spiegel's journalists mentioned that it was Democrats, not Republicans, who involved US in most major conflicts: such as WWI (Wilson), WWII (FDR), Korean War (Truman) Vietnam War (JFK and LBJ), War in (former) Yugoslavia (Clinton), War on Libya (Obama - the latest Nobel Peace Prize Laureat).

Or mentioned that American defense budget could be significantly lowered (and so could Americans' taxes) if mighty EU finally created its own unified military force capable of defending Europe.

Or that it's not Pentagon's budget but unsustainable ENTITLEMENTS (welfare programs) constituting 2/3d of federal budget which are primarily responsible for USA's huge deficit and even bigger national debt.

Or that there's no point of fighting with windmills (or solar panels) since none can supply energy needed by industry (anywhere in the world) anyway.

Or that China addresses its massive pollution and energy shortgage problem by building dozens of ATOMIC power plants; many of them designed by American Westinghouse.

[I won't mention that anti-nuke Germany is almost totally at KGB gen. Putin's and his GAZPROM's mercy]



Pehaps you could also correct such false claims as that Mayor Bloomberg is a Republican (he isn't: he's an Independent), or that T.E.A. Party is Republican or sponsored by Republican Party. [it isn't: it's a independendent grassroot movement of fiscal conservatives of all races, and includes Democrats, Independents, Libertarians and Republicans]

P.S. Good luck for Germany and Germans NEXT November!

[backroomdancer]

Outstanding article, well-written and filled with so many important aspects. I am usually critical towards Der Spiegel sometimes, but this was absolutely flawless, compact and
hit the nail right on the head.