Or rather it's the U.S. political system that worries Foreign Policy's Steve Walt in this post about America's rocky future. This is a theme that keeps coming up with pundits, especially those (such as Thomas Friedman and Mathew Yglesias) who are frustrated by the lack of policy action on climate change and other big ticket issues. Walt usually confines himself to the international relations sphere. But he and some of his Harvard buddies were discussing the homefront recently and concluded a few things:
The danger, as my colleagues generally agreed, is the incapacity of the U.S. political system to make timely decisions, except in conditions of absolute crisis, and its tendency over the past decade to make boneheaded decisions that are hard to correct. The Founding Fathers were wary of concentrated power (and with good reason), but the system they created is both filled with veto points (i.e., places where a policy initiative can be stymied), and unusually open to the influence of special interests (especially when they have lots of money). The results are policies that are good for the wealthy few but not for the society as a whole, and an impaired ability to make big policy investments that will pay off long-term. True, Obama was able to get a significant financial rescue package adopted, but only because the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House and because Americans were genuinely terrified of a further economic meltdown in 2009. A few months later, it took a massive effort to pass a heavily watered-down health care bill. And ever since, the GOP (which should be renamed the "Grand Obstructionist Party"), has been opposed to virtually anything that Obama and the Democrats suggest. Congress couldn't even pass an energy and climate change bill last year, even though it was the hottest summer on record and there was a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, political discourse in the United States is increasingly dominated by wingnuts whose main goal is to enrich themselves by spouting fact-free accusations, largely as a form of "entertainment." It is hard to believe that our political system can successfully address future challenges when so many prominent politicians and pundits cheerfully spout the purest nonsense, or shamelessly pander to the powerful but narrow interest groups who fund their campaigns.
Now there's a part of me that is sympathetic to this laundry list of concerns, particularly the fetid nature of political discourse. But there also is a part of me that tries to keep some perspective about the failings of U.S. democratic institutions and the U.S. news media. And then I can't help thinking that I've already heard this refrain about our broken government and our dysfunctional political system. At the end of his post, Walt asks his readers if they're optimistic or pessimistic about America's future, which seems like an odd question given the current free floating anger in the body politic. Instead of posing such a mushy query, I'd ask whether readers agree with his diagnosis, and if so, what can be done to fix the main ailments? Anybody here want to take a stab?
