We Love Youse All

One very obvious observation about the decline of the power and influence of the USA over the past decade has been the increasingly ratty nature of their politics. Both major parties are now so consumed by greed and power that they have lost much of their relevance.

But one party, the Republicans are so out of touch with reality that they seem to have relocated to another planet. In part this is due to the rise of the Tea party but it’s also about the massive rise of ideology and religion. And a poorly informed populace that has been captured by an old fox. As Andrew Bacevich says - "Ideology makes people stupid".

The Republicans appear determined to push the American people into joblessness and poverty - all on the back of their weird ideology. I mean who in their right mind would think that their economy could be jump started by cutting expenditure? Only dingbats.

Clearly their Democracy is broken. Perhaps they exported too much of it?

Something similar happened in Australian politics about a decade ago with the rise of One Nation and the attempts of the Liberal party to corral them. Actually what happened was that the Liberals adopted the One Nation ideology and now we have our very own version of the Republican Party. All without anyone noticing or even a mild murmur among the commentariat. It’s all in a days work for an old fox.

And where goes the US government so follow their corporations.

Recently Wikileaks exposed the true function of the US State Department - which is to ride shotgun for Corporate America. One of their roles is to lobby, coerce and bully other nations to ensure that US corporations get favoured treatment around the world. It's been going on for decades and has resulted in the export of a particularly nasty corporate culture.

If you have the misfortune to deal with any of them then you will find yourself in a warzone - minus the gunfire. Its now shock and awe corporate style when you deal with these masters of the universe.

And we seem to have acquired a Prime Minister who has overdosed on their kool-aid. Because apparently "we still love youse all".