The thing is, I'm not pessimistic; empires always fall, and need to fall, if human kind is to make any kind of progress toward a future. Ours is an empire led by an elite who love militarism (most are), arrogance (ditto), and greed. The greed is not so much "ditto" because it isn't just the elite who are driven by it. Pretty much all of us expect, demand even, the right to consume roughly 25% of the resources produced by the world, while being only 5% of the population. We blithely denounce the 1% while, in the eyes of most of the world, being part of that same elite. Most of us, I suspect even most of us here, would not support a candidate for POTUS who promised to unilaterally cut the US's nuclear arsenal in half; even if that left 3,400 warheads - more than enough to devastate the planet. Nor would most of us support a promise to cut all US military spending in half, even though that would still leave it as the largest in the world by a large amount. Nor do we make much of an issue over the fact that the US military is, likely, the single largest consumer of oil.
We would not support a candidate who promised to stop using the tax code for social engineering by doing away with all deductions and tax breaks, both personal and corporate. America (not so much the people here) will never vote for someone who is openly non-religious, who calls for the de-militarization of the police forces, who would utterly suspend the war on drugs, de-fund the DEA, and disband Homeland security. We are a nation that worships authoritarianism, loves violence, and has little regard for competence, knowledge, or learning.
If the US were a building it would be far beyond repair. Tearing it down and starting over, from the very foundation up, would be the only choice. The very structure of our government, from the make-up of the Senate to the electoral collage, is out-dated and corrupt. The 2ed amendment is a nightmare of obtuse and confusing language. The House of Representatives is nothing of the kind, and the Supreme court is neither supreme, or even a court. It has become nothing but a rubber stamp machine for corporate interests.
Unfortunately, tearing anything down is a messy, often dangerous, business. Building something new and useful in its place takes time and effort on the part of knowledgeable, capable, dedicated, people. I'm not sure we measure up but, at this point, there is nothing more dangerous to the world than a nut-case POTUS who hates science and loves him some nukes. If there is a future, people in it will likely be debating the morality of sending someone back in a time machine to prevent what is likely to happen.
We would not support a candidate who promised to stop using the tax code for social engineering by doing away with all deductions and tax breaks, both personal and corporate. America (not so much the people here) will never vote for someone who is openly non-religious, who calls for the de-militarization of the police forces, who would utterly suspend the war on drugs, de-fund the DEA, and disband Homeland security. We are a nation that worships authoritarianism, loves violence, and has little regard for competence, knowledge, or learning.
If the US were a building it would be far beyond repair. Tearing it down and starting over, from the very foundation up, would be the only choice. The very structure of our government, from the make-up of the Senate to the electoral collage, is out-dated and corrupt. The 2ed amendment is a nightmare of obtuse and confusing language. The House of Representatives is nothing of the kind, and the Supreme court is neither supreme, or even a court. It has become nothing but a rubber stamp machine for corporate interests.
Unfortunately, tearing anything down is a messy, often dangerous, business. Building something new and useful in its place takes time and effort on the part of knowledgeable, capable, dedicated, people. I'm not sure we measure up but, at this point, there is nothing more dangerous to the world than a nut-case POTUS who hates science and loves him some nukes. If there is a future, people in it will likely be debating the morality of sending someone back in a time machine to prevent what is likely to happen.
