any ideas on how to fix this?
There's this seesaw we've been trapped in since Nixon--one where the GOP runs up massive deficits and trashes trust in law and government as a force for good, then us Democrats have to come in and clean up but can't make real progress because of all the damage done, then the GOP comes back in and does the same thing again, then we have to come in and clean up again, etc...
I don't see an end to it, and i find it impossible to reconcile with any sort of real progress occuring, or even a halting of the reversals. It seems that we've been going backwards since the 70s, and watching the rest of the world go forward.
Each succeeding generation--as a result of this trashing, then cleaning, etc--has less faith in government as a force for good, and cynicism grows and grows so that even small improvements seem out of reach, let alone big things like universal health, or better lifelong public education, clean energy, etc.
Can it be stopped? We're stuck in it for 08 for sure.
Comments
I think you have struck upon a universal historical trait of government. Regardless of parties in any nation or even if there is a democracy, the public will only put up with so much BS before there is a democratic or violent revolt.
I don't see how this happening in the US is any different than anywhere else. Which all does nothing to solve your original problem, of how we get out of such a cycle.
The answer is that I don't think we can. My grandmother believed that in general people who enter politics were corrupt from the start or the system corrupted them. From my observation, she was largely correct.
The only President in my adult life who seemed to be above the fray was President Carter. His life since his largely failed presidency has also proved a model of love and caring for other people. He well deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
I don't trust any politician or political party to do the right thing. And in the US, most of the public has little interest in politics. The media is largely controlled by six large corporations.
How to fix it? The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.
Short of revolution, I don't know how things will ever change.
I don't know--it kills me to think we're so stuck.