I get it when the ultra-conservatives bellyache that the US is in decline. For them, everything that happened since the rise of the civil rights movements is one huge disaster, but at least they are consistent.
What is really weird is when the most progressive news outlet in the country begins to whine that “we are a nation in decline.” Decline from what, folks? I’m not trying to be facetious or make any sort of a point. I’m genuinely trying to understand. Which decade, year, month, or presidency is considered the Golden Age of American liberalism after which everything has gone downhill? Am I missing something in my knowledge of the US history because it seems to me that if you are a Liberal, there wasn’t a better moment in terms of progressivism in the American history than today. And tomorrow seems to be even better.
The article I linked to lists all kinds of appalling things: the lack of healthcare and dental care, the expiration of unemployment benefits, lack of medical insurance for the unemployed. But was there a time when these things existed in this country? If we are talking about a decline, it must mean that at some point everybody had medical and dental care in the US, right? But that never happened, right?
Is it the Clinton presidency that people are remembering so fondly? The Carter years? Surely not JFK? Then what?
P.S. Now that I’m done with the question I want to make an observation: you have to be a real meathead to complain that the US hasn’t been able to modernize its roads and eliminate hunger as well as Switzerland. Is it so hard to get a map and try to compare the sizes of the US and fucking Switzerland. (No offense to Switzerland, folks, I’m just venting). I’m all for making a good progressive point but does one have to pull a Michael Moore and get ridiculous about it?
And while I’m at it, the stupid picture of a stupid Russian high-speed train undermines the entire article. Yes, there is one such train in the humongous country of Russia. All the other hundreds upon hundreds of trains in the country are in an appalling state. I kind of know what I’m talking about because this summer I translated a bunch of texts for the General Management of the Russian Railway. Russia is an example of a really crumbling infrastructure. There were so many accidents with crowds of people dying in Russia as a result in the past few years that you have to be not only a meathead but a cruel meathead to use Russia as an example of good infrastructure.
Details, people. Details matter. If you want to be effective don’t fib about small things. Is it that hard to verify the information before posting it? And let’s not nod in the direction of Spiegel. If one repeats information uncritically and signs one’s name to it, then one is responsible for it.
OK, I have vented and will now go teach my students about Cuba.
Clarissa's Blog 
Ah! Cuba! There is a progressive’s true paradise!
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A very very tragic, miserable place.
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Nice beaches, Charles. 🙂
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I had a similar reaction to the picture of a high-speed train in China (especially given that the picture gives no indication of the safety issues). Sure, most of the trains run on-time, or reasonably close to on-time, but I can’t imagine anyone being upset that Americans don’t have the opportunity to sit on hard seats in a carriage so crowded with standing-room passengers that most people don’t bother trying to get to the toilet (though somehow the beer vendors make it through).
But the first clue that this article was going to be awful was the phrase “[a]s an American expat living in the European Union”: as an American expat living in the North of Ireland, I can tell you that anyone who prefaces their opinions that way is sure to be insufferable.
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“But the first clue that this article was going to be awful was the phrase “[a]s an American expat living in the European Union”: as an American expat living in the North of Ireland, I can tell you that anyone who prefaces their opinions that way is sure to be insufferable.”
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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The high speed train in China was made by combining a European and Japanese prototype. This amalgam was intended to avoid costs relating to the patents. One train crashed and its remnants were not investigated, but buried, so that the technological embarrassment might be immediately erased.
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I think the U. S. has declined somewhat since about 1970 or 1975. We no longer seem able to keep our roads and bridges in good repair, for example. And the real median income is dropping even as the wealthy get richer. Our infant mortality rate has gotten worse since then. It seems likely that fewer and fewer young people will be able to get a university or college education, since the cost of tuition is climbing. This does seem to me to be a decline, sadly. I hope it is not an irreversible one.
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By the way, I blame the far right for this decline, almost totally.
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Why the far right? I thought it was mostly Reagan who did all this.
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He is pretty far right although not as loony as some people we have now. I agree with Bellamy, but I think most of those who talk about decline are nostalgic for the 50s, which they idealize.
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It’s my mistake, I thought David meant the religious right, but now I understand he was talking about the far right economically.
How come the reasonable Americans allowed the horror of Reagan to be inflicted on the world? Only Nixon was worse than that guy.
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Reagan promised to save us from hippies, persons of color, liberated women and all those things which had been pioneered in the 60s and mainstreamed in the 70s. He got regular “middle Americans” whose interests were more labor/Democratic to believe he was their man. He worked to create ressentiment.
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Let us hope that Bush Jr. was the last mistake of this kind people of this country have made. Enough is enough.
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Reagan seems to have managed to get people to attack their own interests. This was quite a marvel of ingenuity. His right-wing legacy has not been superseded.
“Healthcare! –I hate it! Don’t give me any health care, as people will just take advantage of the system!”
“Free education! I can’t stand it. That demeans me. Make me pay…”
etc.
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Reagan wasnt very far Right at all. In fact, in todays climate he would have had no chance to even get the nomination. Here is a little something on Reagan that is quite humorous and telling at the same time.
http://www.starkreports.com/2011/02/04/rush-limbaugh-chats-wme-about-ronald-reagans-legacy/
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“.. and eliminate hunger as well as Switzerland”
But, but, why would you want to eliminate Switzerland?! :c
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Neither Nixon nor Reagan were as bad as today’s conservatives. Nixon created the EPA, which, after many fits and starts, is why we have cleaner air and water than we did forty years ago. Reagan did away with compulsory retirement which forced people with a lot to contribute to become idle.
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It is true, but they started the move to the right, the dismantling of the New Deal, the revenge against civil rights … or am I missing something?
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Reagan did. Nixon created CETA to make the government an employer of last resort to try to prevent a more serious recession. This was a very much New Deal kind of program.
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