“This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,” says a top U.S. banker.
American constitutional government halts, blocked by the failure of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to compromise and resume their role in government. The process of government becomes hostage to a small group of extreme Republicans, exploiting their power for their own purposes and ignoring the national interest.
The U.S. is the world’s model for democracy. But the Constitution cannot guarantee that its institutions will work. That depends on a shared commitment to place the effective functioning of the model ahead of any purely partisan interest. That commitment, once breached to the point of the Civil War, is once again breached by the deep ideological conflicts of a new civil war.
Donald Trump’s loyalists battle others in their party, producing congressional stalemate. Meanwhile Trump, the pollsters’ pick for the GOP presidential nomination, goes from one courtroom to another. Though the charges look serious, he seems immune from political harm and has effectively taken control of the Republican Party.
Democrats rally around Biden and display uncharacteristic unity, not bailing out the GOP. They see him as their best bet to keep Trump out of the White House, just as they saw Hilary Clinton in 2016. He suffers from seeming bland in the Age of Celebrity, when it counts to be flashy. Once again, the Dems see competence as a substitute for charisma.
At the same time, America’s place in the world is threatened not only by the failure of its government, but by the hostility of its adversaries. China, together with Russia, Iran and North Korea, strive to show that dictatorship is the natural and workable form of government.
A new report emphasizes that these four countries have more nuclear capability than the U.S. Pax Americana, when U.S. nuclear power guaranteed world peace, is gone. While either side can destroy the other, wielding nuclear arms is more a matter of influence than of destruction.
Trump has openly fawned over the dictators in Russia and China, while they stealthily tampered with the American political system. He envied the authoritarian power of Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi, which is now openly threatening.
Trump thought he could charm the North Korean pipsqueak dictator. He turned Iran, at least temporarily restrained by a nuclear accord, into an immediate and dangerous enemy. Now, we pay the price.
The growth of the menacing nuclear powers would be bad enough. But it is accompanied by the failure of the United Nations system to promote and preserve peace. It was supposed to be the way to end territorial wars, especially in Europe, and to unite the world’s great powers in preventing conflict.
A land war in Europe rages as Russia, once a great power, invades Ukraine, its neighbor. Countries have stepped up to support Ukraine, as much to draw a line against this kind of territorial expansion as to help a victim of aggression.
But now the world grows tired of the effort and resumes drifting away from the U.N.’s purpose. Its Secretary General launches platitudes from the safety of New York, accepting obscurity and enhancing his organization’s ill-relevance. He should have gone to the Middle East, not Biden.
The problem of Israel and Palestine, ripe for settlement by the U.N. in 1947, grows worse. Israel, founded as a territorial homeland for Jews, deserves to exist free from constant threat. But full U.S. support for it seems to lead to a nuclear deal with the Saudi dictator over the heads of the Palestinians. That fires up the Hamas terrorists, who only know how to lash out brutally.
Perhaps even worse over the long term is the increasing threat to life on earth. Short-term corporate profit and the quest for personal wealth build walls that block our view of the future that will result from the climbing global temperature.
The Wall Street Journal has revealed that, while petroleum mammoth Exxon publicly pledged support for the development of energy alternatives to oil and gas, it actively opposed such efforts and pushed more fossil-fuel production. It has just acquired a major shale oil company. Exxon boss, Rex Tillerson, later Trump’s first Secretary of State, was a monumental liar.
If things are not at rock bottom, we are making good progress getting there.
The problem is leadership. We don’t have any.
Congress and the White House are led by the elderly, seemingly more intent on holding office than on reform. Younger people are forced to wait respectfully. Where are the leaders who speak out with some courage even at the risk of losing elections? Politics shouldn’t just be a job to be held onto.
It’s time for strong leadership, and that requires new people at the top.
Gordon L. Weil formerly wrote for the Washington Post and other newspapers, served on the U.S. Senate and EU staffs, headed Maine state agencies and was a Harpswell selectman.
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