The ruling elites are painfully aware that the foundations of American
power are rotting. The outsourcing of manufacturing in the United States
and the plunging of over half the population into poverty will, they
know, not be reversed. The self-destructive government shutdown has been
only one of numerous assaults on the efficiency of the administrative
state. The failing roads, bridges and public transportation are making
commerce and communications more difficult. The soaring government deficit,
now almost a trillion dollars thanks to the Trump administration’s
massive corporate tax cuts, cannot be eliminated. The seizure of the
financial system by global speculators ensures, sooner rather than
later, another financial meltdown. The dysfunction of democratic
institutions, which vomit up con artists such as Donald Trump and hold
as alternatives inept, corporate-indentured politicians such as Joe
Biden and Nancy Pelosi, is cementing into place a new authoritarianism.
The hollowing out of the pillars of the state, including the diplomatic
corps and regulatory agencies, leaves the blunt force of the military as
the only response to foreign disputes and fuels endless and futile
foreign wars.
