American Decline is Inevitable Only Under Obama

Under Obama, a continuing American decline is inevitable. The same would have been true under President Jimmy Carter, had he been re-elected to a second term in 1980, instead of Ronald Reagan. Certain leaders attract decline like iron to a magnet.

America has been the world leader for many decades, and is unlikely to surrender that status without internal treachery coming from the very top levels.

The basic strengths of America are real, but not immutable. American status does not maintain itself; the actions required to reduce or counteract the risks of decline are numerous and complex. The most critical areas of concern include debt, the deficit, and entitlements, along with health-care and tax reforms, as well as changes in immigration policy and measures to lessen dependence on imported oil...

In the same Gallup survey that found the United States by far the most popular destination for would-be foreign migrants, respondents in more than one hundred countries expressed much higher approval of US leadership than for six other major powers, including, in order, Germany, France, Japan, the UK, China, and Russia.

The American role remains—in the oft-used word—indispensable. With its hard-power resources, it is the ultimate guarantor against aggressive and nihilistic movements and regimes.

...The society’s resilience and adaptability are unusual for a large country, as are its economic competitiveness and entrepreneurship. The United States, thanks to its unmatched research universities, enrolls a higher proportion of the world’s international students than any other country, with some two-thirds of graduate students who study abroad doing so in the United States.

Democracy, the rule of law, liberty, and popular sovereignty constitute fundamental strengths. There is no doubt that the democratic process is often messy and raucous, but it makes the political system responsive to a huge and heterogeneous public. It is well to keep in mind that America’s main peer competitor, China, lacks these vital features. There, the gap between rulers and the ruled could become increasingly untenable for a wealthier, more educated population with access to information and social media and increasingly aware of its own lack of political and civil liberties, not to mention the absence of accountability on the part of those who control political power. Indeed, China may be experiencing as many as one hundred and eighty thousand political, civil, or labor disturbances per year, and without major changes, which the current leadership is unlikely to countenance, social unrest will only continue to grow.

...Beyond the major areas of health-care and entitlement reform, other challenges loom. For the economy as a whole, reducing uncertainty and fostering a climate conducive to investment and economic growth are vital. This is especially relevant for tax reform and rationalization of the corporate tax. The United States has the second-highest corporate taxes in the world, after Taiwan, but because of the complexity of the tax structure and loopholes in the law, some corporations pay little or no tax, while for others the tax structure creates incentives for investment abroad rather than at home.

Excessive bureaucracy and government regulation are closely connected. Some degree of regulation is desirable and necessary in a modern economy, but excesses in bureaucratic structures, tedious permitting processes, arbitrary application of labor, employment, and environmental law, and overlapping federal, state, and local jurisdictions have become legendary.

...Complete energy independence may not be necessary or possible for the US, but the reduction of America’s dependence on imported oil and its vulnerability to oil price and supply disruptions is essential. What is required is a diverse, robust energy mix that includes better efficiency at home coupled with substantially increased domestic energy production, especially of oil and natural gas, along with the safe use of nuclear power. Renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power, have a useful place in this energy mix, but compared with the vast quantities of energy required to sustain modern American life, their overall impact will remain modest, at least for the medium term. The challenge is to focus on what is practical and effective, rather than on what is fashionable or politically expedient.

...Crisis can be a stimulus to change as well as a warning sign of potential failure, and it is often the case that major problems are not grappled with effectively until they become acute. The debt, deficit, and entitlement issues that currently cloud the American future could well fit this pattern. These problems are by no means insurmountable, despite the formidable political obstacles standing in the way of their resolution. In foreign affairs, the dangers from nuclear proliferation and terrorism are serious, and the rise of regional powers makes it more difficult for the United States to gain agreement on approaches to common problems. Other than China, however, there is no real peer competitor on the horizon.

Our staying power is in our own hands. Whether we maintain it is not a matter of large historical forces beyond our control, but a question of choices, policies, and resolve. _American Decline a Matter of Choice

National decline is a matter of choice. Actually, it is a matter of a large number of choices, many of them made in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, at a subconscious level. For a relatively strong and resilient nation such as the US to undergo sustained decline, there must be a collusion of sorts between the national leadership, the nation's institutions, and the population at large.

In other words, Obama cannot be given the total blame for America's ongoing decline. Without the huge and bloated government bureaucracies, government employee unions, a thoroughly corrupted media and academia, and a dumbed down electorate, Obama would have never been given the power to enact his program of indoctrination, so thoroughly ingrained into his young mind in childhood and adolescence.

But Americans do have a choice. Theoretically -- unlike in nations such as China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea etc. -- in America, elections are relatively reliable (plus or minus 10 to 15%), and elections have consequences.

Under Obama, American decline is inevitable. If Americans choose Obama (plus or minus 10 to 15%), it will be a sign that they are feeling very lucky indeed.