In today's NYT, Paul Krugman summarizes nicely what we all know already about America's current "crisis of confidence."
Jump down for excerpts and a link to today's column.
Krugman shows how the many Bushco-created messes in our country - from Iraq to Katrina to the economy - are all converging at once to lead to a crisis of confidence in our country not seen since perhaps the late 1970s:
Now that more time has elapsed since 9/11 than the whole stretch from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, people are losing faith. Osama, it turns out, could both run and hide. It's obvious from the evening news that Al Qaeda and violent Islamic extremism in general are flourishing.
And the hapless response to Katrina, which should have been easier to deal with than a terrorist attack, has shown that our leaders have done virtually nothing to make us safer.
Krugman also astutely notes that the many problems in our country are feeding on each other in a type of downward spiral that will be hard to stop:
These blows to our national self-image are mutually reinforcing. The sense that we're caught in an unwinnable war reinforces the sense that the economy is getting worse, and vice versa. So we're having a crisis of confidence.
His last paragraph is the best, asking the million-dollar question:
It's the kind of crisis that opens the door for dramatic political changes -- possibly, but not necessarily, in a good direction. But who will provide leadership, now that Mr. Bush is damaged goods?
Read the full column (free) here.