[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
Using variables for whatever reason social scientists comparing different countries always slot some in the most desired track, the modern industrial democracy: Canada, most of Europe, Japan, and Australia. The United States used to be in the top rung but it’s been obvious for a long, long time we dropped out into our own lonely come-down, the ugly, burdened military industrial democracy.
Indelible stark proof of the fact is easily found in a vast abundance of factors: Congress annually passes an astounding--just amazing--$700 billion for the DOD and various wars, far more, absurdly more than all of the rest of the industrial democracies spend on defense combined. Without a peep from the President or Democrats, as if America slavishly armed to vast hordes of killing instruments was what God and Mom intended for us all along, of course.
We have a trillion dollar investment in nuclear weaponry that’s never discussed, but Democrats are so afraid of the number health care reform got put off until 2012. We routinely flout the quaint sovereignty of any country we wish and kill their innocent citizens with ill-aimed missiles from drones. Whoops!
Charlatans of fiduciary duty now whine about deficit spending, but just incredibly cutting military spending—to the easy tune of $200 billion a year, not a problem at all—is simply never discussed or even brought up. Totally unthinkable, cash of for the DOD is automatic and not like other cash, it’s immune in America to budget calculations.
Militarization even creeped into the liberal flagship netroots site, Daily Kos. The banner font is army stencil and Democrats initially felt comfortable there because the founder has military experience.
Other industrial democracies usually adopt an industrial policy of some sort, a sad discussion that recently bounced around the New York Times and Eschaton. Watching enviously from afar in the second tier it’s interesting to see different countries, for different reasons, employ industrial policy that develops industrial or social expertise that seriously shines in the realm of human accomplishment.
The Japanese build cars, ships and trains like no others, the French matching them in trains and eating gloriously without heart disease. Norway has an astoundingly good and inexpensive wireless data environment. United Kingdom has awesome healthcare with the gravitas of a cherished Winston Churchill legacy.
The United States has awesome aircraft carriers and nuclear ICBM submarines. We desperately need infrastructure and education investment, a complete switch-off from fossil fuels, various industrial policies that finally deliver jobs to our citizens, and dreams all our people can believe in.
Instead we get more useless war in Afghanistan. This is the life of the military industrial democracy, the singular lonely slot of the United States on the planet, broke, hurting, and in complete denial about the second tier of material and societal existence shoved down our throats just to make sure the jets fly and the tanks squeak.
Only after that is accomplished is a haphazard industrial policy clumsily put in place for whatever most powerful industry is around, an old story in the United States, the railroads having the power in the 19th century banking does now.
Needless to say the needs of the little people are far, far down on the list of military industrial democracy and it shows in our lousy healthcare, our appalling infant mortality rate, sub-rate education accomplishments, lack of basic infrastructure like trains and even the most vital elements of life like jobs.
Liberals all of types are in the various gut-wrenching and painful stages of accepting that Barack Obama, the New One, is in fact simply the same plain ol’, White House logs showing the odious Billy Tauzin to be their good friend now that they got elected just one of many examples of how fundamental change is not here in any honorable sense at all. A few crumbs thrown to the little people with some window dressing of policy, but the Department of Defense will always get their money.
I’m not a pacifist, I have wartime DOD service in my past, I preach to one about some dubious form of peaceful utopia. I do state categorically that the United States has become a military industrial democracy, it’s a complete mark-down from the past top slot on the planet, and much to my dismay this obvious fact is totally denied in the United States by both major political parties.
Forget about real healthcare or cell phones or trains or whatever for the future, we can’t do it and fund the Department of Defense at the same time. Can’t be done.