[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
Poor Tommy Friedman in today’s New York Times suddenly noticed—nearly eight years after the penultimate event heralding all the disastrous indicators he trots out 1—that America is in "debt and decline." It all happened so fast, just in 2001 we had a terrific savings rate and budget surplus, and now well hell, all of mighty sudden we’re at "a 34-year low." Thanks for telling us how screwed we are, Tommy, it’s so news to us. When your brain can tell the reader why this happened with empirical proposals to fix it we might even think of you as a journalist.
Analysis of Republic health can use systems theory instead of slack-jawed staring at indicators, and the first great failure of the modern American democracy system was the collapse of its free press, a corporate takeover that tipped over sometime in 1995 into a full-blown propaganda corps that immeasurably helped impeached a President for nothing, then to grossly enable a failed drunk while turning the great Al Gore into a prissy liar. All other American system failures emanate from this furious kernel of American journalism failure, it’s why half of blogtopia is so fanatically committed to fighting it.
Social institutions tip over into failure in a process, their sad shells still clanking along in present abject failure. When former press secretary McClellan stated the obvious that American journalism totally failed for the Iraq war, becoming nothing but cheering stenographers (as Jedi blogger Digby observed, only a corporate press would listen to a Republican), they can bleat and whine all they want they aren’t corporate kiss-ass failures, it’s still universally obvious.
Failure to enforce truth in everyday political dialogue set the stage for the penultimate event, a rare historical marker of nuclear shining clarity in a world usually blended with graying ambiguities. In December 2000 the American judicial branch self-destructed, barfing a noxious, perniciously toxic failure in Bush vs. Gore. In the uproar of all the lying somehow, with the fate of the Republic in the their hands, the "justices" of that Supreme Court took it and smashed it, all the screaming horrifying democracy system failures of the last seven years sputter and clank out of a system crippled from our failed judicial branch and that decision.
The corporate press, slimy handmaidens to all this horror, of course deny the truth and spit upon those who insist on speaking it as pajama-clad lefty loons. History and the truth will always see with instant clarity the utter failure and theft of democracy in Bush vs. Gore.
As well all know now this horror had the disastrous effect of simultaneously robbing the democracy of producing an executive, America fell into the new century with an amazing splat of failed executive, judicial, and free press systems.
It is a regrettably sore topic with many of my liberal brothers and sisters, but 2001 also marks the clear beginning of opposition party failure, when called upon to go to the mat the Democrats have consistently failed and walked away in the American two-party system. The irrefutable evidence is the existence of anti-establishment Howard Dean, a 2004 candidate who "reported to duty" to continue a lying war he voted for, the utterly debilitating phenomena of phantom Democrat "blue dogs," continued funding of the Iraq war, and capitulation on FISA. I wish I knew why.
The Democratic presidential candidates for 2008 came out of the American Senate in this sorry history, a negative anachronistic House of Lords drag on Democracy our United Kingdom cousins were wise enough to heave long ago. Caution will always be called for when supporting such Democrats.
So by golly gee, Mr. Thomas Friedman of the FISA-felony-enabling New York Times,2 things sure have gone all to hell in a hand basket with two failed wars, an economy in utter shambles on a warming planet where all of our brother and sister nations loathe our lying, murdering, polluting petrol-imperialism. We never saw this one coming, brother, we’re so grateful for the cab driver indicators so stupidly provided to us today in a free press system failure that has fucked us so.
In all these strawberry fields of cheery political systems fun there a bright success marker on a still-functioning element, however: the 2006 election and the vibrant, aware, participating American people. A little slow on the take and so regrettably stuck with Joe Lieberman and Steny Hoyer for the valiancy, but showing with amazing 2008 primary participation and fundraising rates Americans are still very much on the march, still demanding their precious political systems work.
The people are still with the Republic, that is so very true. We will not go away after Election 2008, either.
[1] Mr. Friedman is a very wealthy corporate journalist in a corporate journalism environment, so it never occurs to him there are perfectly valid indicators of Republic health other than almighty economics: underweight baby rates, food stamp participation rates, prison incarceration rates, biodiversity preservation programs, divorce rates, housing statistics...
The United States of America was not set up for corporate heath, it has been built with so much blood and sacrifice for the welfare and happiness of its people. A good indicator that American "journalism" has emerged from its failure mode—if it ever does—is when "preeminent" writers like Mr. Friedman stop using pure business perspectives and indicators for Republic health.
[2] The New York Times had the FISA story cold before the 2004 election and deliberately withheld it.