Jumping the Shark is a reference to the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumps over a shark on water skis. It was clear at that point that the show would never be any good any more and was on the road to cancellation.
It is clear that America is also done for, never to recover. My question to you, and it is an open question, is "When did America Jump the Shark?" What was the moment, probably a cliché, overly dramatic moment when it was clear America was over? I'll include a poll but write-ins are more than welcome.
Now I happen to know that many of you are going to say that it hasn't or when people gave up and started writing diaries like this. However, I'm afraid you're wrong. I know that a popular opinion around here is that the Democrats will retake the Congress in November and save America.
I'm afraid I don't agree with you. Retaking either house is statistically unlikely at best. The Republicans and the corporatacracy have plenty of time further take away civil liberties and dismantle the machinery of checks and balances ending America as we know it.
Even if the Democrats regained some control, it really wouldn't matter. They won't even apply band-aids to America's deep wounds. The Democrats jumped the shark when the DLC took control of the party and started the whole "New Democrat" re-branding. The Democratic Party is controlled by people completely beholden to big business and they ain't stopping shit. The fact that they are pro-war speaks volumes.
Furthermore, whether you like it or not, America is an imperialist nation which needs to exploit other nations to exist. It seems like our power is fading and we will have less and less ability to do this.
The British Empire seems to have jumped the shark after World War II. The once powerful Empire that was never particularly good faced off against cartoonish evil. History cast the British empire was cast into a cliché hero role much like Fonzie was. Former rival America was recast prominently as Britains best friend and powerful ally.
After this, they ended up giving up there whole Empire, jumping the shark.
Then there's those Soviet bad boys. I don't know as much Russian History so I'm not clear when they jumped the shark. It could have been Stalin and his silly moustache. It could have been glasnost. I think it was when the Berlin wall fell. Once they couldn't control Eastern Europe they were done. It looks like the U.S. is losing its ability to control Latin America (which is our Eastern Europe). So I think we'll fall too.
I think it's clear that Rome jumped the shark when it became a Christian Empire. Rome was an empire's empire. They were proud of imperialism. When they actually converted to Christianity, it was clear that they were running out of ideas. Christianity would be vindicated as the one of the best ways to control people, but it really wasn't for the Roman Empire. It's way too soft and squishy.
Now Rome sort of lingered on after the conversion for like hundreds of years or something. There was nothing to replace it. Married with Children had a similar situation. When Ted McGinley (the patron saint of jumping the shark) came on the show as Jefferson D'arcy, it was clear that the show jumped the shark. However, since it was on Fox, the show stayed on for many years in spite of being crappy as there was nothing to replace it. There was nothing to replace Rome so it ran for centuries after it should have been cancelled.
Now, it's hard to interpret recent history so it's hard to know when America jumped the shark. There can be a few theories.
Some people will say that America jumped the shark when the Supreme Court upheld the Alien and Sedition Acts. These are the same kinds of purists who say that South Park jumped the shark after Big Gay Al.
Another obvious answer is when George Bush became president. It was a crappy move, but it lacked the pizzazz of a shark jump.
A pretty good answer would be 9-11. It was a very over the top event, followed by nauseating displays of patriotism. It was almost like "a very special episode" of whatever show. A common jump the shark event.
Actually, America might have jumped the shark when the Soviet Union fell. Much like when they solved Laura Palmer's murder America had nothing to keep it focused. It didn't want to take on China because of the cheap labor, so we were left with these piss ass terrorist enemies. Very crappy and over-hyped.
If it hadn't jumped the shark from any of these events, it certainly did when it invaded Iraq. A totally stupid and nonsensical plotline. We attack a country without any pretense to hide imperialism and we say that France is a major enemy. ZZZ....
It turns out America has been weakened by years of corruption and it turns out these are some the bravest occupied people the world has ever seen and we can't even beat them. We ultimately end up staying there forever without the money to support the endeavor. Our whole economy collapses and we can't fix our problems because you can't make reforms in a police state.
Crappy shit. It's already clear that we are headed for the end. I think the writing is on the wall with the illegal government spying. It is clear that this is not going to stop and we are all done.