This is surely the cycle of politics, anywhere in the democratic world. A period in which the state is rolled back, until corporate and financial scandals and crises hurt the people, followed by corrective surgery by state intervention, until people resent the intrusiveness. Does one vote for one’s country or self-interest? Are voters well enough informed and educated on the issues to vote? I wasn’t convinced that anyone in the recent democratic debate was the right person to become president, but as a whole they all had something to offer. One day, issues will be quantifiable and vast computers will calculate the enormous variables to ‘what if?’ scenarios. Our great, great, great grandchildren will then look back with a smile at our quaint and antiquated muddling through. Of course that will all be wrong as well.
I think what may shape American politics over the next decade, are issues like regaining lost credibility on the world stage, coming to terms with the new major economic players, and following a root that seeks to appease the dichotomous population. Whereas, Sarkozy is encouraging the French to ‘think less, and do more’, maybe this should be a reflective period for Americans in which the reverse is true.
