We have heard for months that the sky is falling and the American economy is on the verge of collapse. The Bush administration warned of an economic Armageddon if its Wall Street bailout wasn’t approved immediately. The Obama administration has talked about saving us from the “verge of collapse.”

The fact is more nuanced than that; America may well be collapsing before our eyes, but it is happening more slowly than some would believe. A country like the United States is not going to go away over night, but it could very well be a shell of its former self a decade or more from now.

British historian Niall Ferguson, writing for Foreign Affairs, outlines the decline of the American empire as a result of its inability to squash desires for international commercial, military and political dominance. As our leadership struggles with the day-to-day problems of political sausage making, the seams of this nation could be coming apart.

The political right viciously attacks any and all provisions brought up by the Democrats in Congress. They lament “socialism,” “Marxism,” “radicals” and other faceless terminologies in demonizing their opposition. But in the end, after the dust settles, the nation has accomplished nothing. Regardless of whether or not you approve of these particular health care reforms, social spending reforms, financial regulations, or military expeditions, you have to favor progress. If you don’t march toward progress you will be overcome and eventually left behind.

Andrew Nagorski, writing for Newsweek, also highlighted the declining circumstances of the United States. Nagorski brought attention to the indecisiveness in Washington, the infighting and the lack of motivation. As the United States, nearly four years later, still clamors with how to even begin addressing its economic crisis the rest of the world has moved on.

Entrenched opposition fighting to take power at the expense of the other side does not divide the halls of government in Beijing; a yearning for collective success unites them. There are internal power struggles, but there is no gridlock.

The European Union is not universally popular even in the most liberal of European nations, yet it has continued to move forward with pro-Europe policies and reforms. Nobody was happy about bailing out Greece, but it had to be done for the future good of everyone else.

There is no way that our nation can continue in its special place of international prominence unless we start working together for our own benefit. Some things, like quality education and health care, are public goods that should not be susceptible to political gamesmanship. No other nation in the world is fighting over what should go in its textbooks, or which individual sick people should be given attention.

In the United States we have one party standing in the way of progress at every turn if that progress was conceived of by anyone other than them.

Trade policy, currency policy, manufacturing investment, infrastructure development, tax reform and financial regulation have all be done in by obstructionist members of the government. In the never ending foray to win electoral brownie points our elected officials have begun to act against the best interest of those they represent.

After generations of ignoring the future for the sake of immediate gains, the United States is at a crossroads. Our government has to start voting for the future, instead of trying to build up the status quo. We have had zero employment growth in ten years. A decade of financial gains was undone by a few months of chaos, and it could take another decade to make it all back.

No other country in the world is perfectly content to be in the same place today that it was ten years ago, but in the U.S. that is precisely what we see.

Print PDF