It is All Trump’s Fault
Neal Gabler on Moyers and Company marked the first anniversary of the Donald Trump presidency by writing that America has descended into Banana Republic status thanks to Mr. Trump.
“Whatever her failings, America was once majestic. Now she is hopelessly diminished — a wealthier version of the corrupt nations in the developing world that we used to ridicule. And we owe it all to Donald Trump for making America small again.”
Someone who can transform a nation from “majestic” to third world in 12 months must be capable of walking on water. Not that such transformation feats are impossible. George Bush turned Iraq, a country different from ours but stable, into an incubator for terrorism. Hillary Clinton and her State Department, after contributing to the unforgivable death by impaling of Muammar Gaddafi, plunged Libya into complete chaos (gloating afterwards “We came, we saw, he died”).
The Real Decline
However, the mindless assertion that Donald Trump is responsible for America’s decline is not the point of this article. The point is that America is in decline, and there is very little time to save it. Our Founding Fathers came up with an amazing idea when they created this nation. This was to be a country where the People ruled, where government was for the People and by the People. But such an experiment, they knew, required a responsible populace – folks who understood what to vote for and what not to vote for in order to preserve their liberty and prosperity.
Alas, the Founding Fathers’ experiment seems to have been a tall order. Today, just about everyone depends in some form or another on government, thereby making government the master not the servant of the people. Today, we have voted ourselves into $20 trillion worth of national debt. Today, we see dismal statistics on America’s life expectancy, child mortality, income inequality, and literacy.
Technology: A Competitive Advantage Lost
For example, let’s talk about technology. When modern globalization – where each nation depends on a competitive advantage to thrive – became the norm in the 1970’s, the U.S. was expected to be the leader in technology. It was expected to be comfortable with shedding its manufacturing base and focusing on development of computing power and associated economic sectors, such as banking and finance.
But then unions fossilized mediocre educators into tenure; children were indoctrinated, not taught the three Rs and other skills to allow them self sufficiency and productivity; higher education became more interested in recruiting useful idiots into the progressive cause than teaching future professionals; and so many of our children went to school hungry because their parents were incapable of providing for them. The destruction of the American family, the murderous war on drugs, big pharma, the military-prison-welfare complex are subjects for another day.
Results have been totally predictable. America lost its competitive advantage. In November 2017, China unveiled its Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. The TaihuLight ranked number one in the TOP500 list as the fastest supercomputer in the world. The previous holder of the rank was the Tianhe-2, also Chinese. And by the way, the TaihuLight is also energy-efficient, ranking 16th in the Green500 list.
Precious Little Time to Act
Meanwhile, America does little manufacturing, lacks an adequate skilled workforce, and is mostly focused on the fake news of the month – whether it is toppling down statues or keeping tabs on who exposed himself to whom 20 years ago.
Moyers & Company and Mr. Gabler make their living promoting the status quo progressive state, and that’s entirely their prerogative. It is up to those who suppose Moyers and his company are not connecting the dots to present alternative scenarios.
Speaking of alternative scenarios to Mr. Gabler’s reason why America is in decline, here is a link to episode #1155 of the Max Keiser Report on RT. Max and his guest Dan Collins paint a fascinating picture of how China is building trade partnerships, helping second-tier countries build infrastructure and schools, internationalizing its currency (so they one day may no longer need U.S. dollars), and buying up gold (maybe to establish a gold standard!?). All this while the U.S. has for the last 15 years been squandering its human and economic treasure in endless war, and now has little to offer its neighbors but armaments and military bases.
Max Kaiser is fond of hyperbole. He commented that President Trump is “euthanizing America” in the least painful way – winding down the country’s unrealistic view of itself as policeman to the world, making mutually-beneficial deals with other countries, enticing corporations to come home and provide jobs, and (a contentious part) giving the American worker a better chance of having a job without the presence of foreign workers, whether undocumented or holders of work visas.
We the People need to choose whether to continue on our current trajectory or turn things around. We need to decide who gives a better reason for America’s decline — Neal Gabler or Dan Collins.
Just Vote No 