Democracy requires a sizable body of educated, informed, and responsible voters. My impression is that the average US voter is regressing towards a level of ignorance that makes him unfit to support a functioning democratic government.

The same is true for the partisan politicians in Washington that are not in a position to make the compromises that are necessary to further the common interest. What to do without the US guarding the safety of the world's trade system? Will it become chaos till the next empire takes over? Poor world...

blastoise, i think that's taking it a bit far.

however i do agree that the political problem(s) lie in our system of democracy. since 50% of the voting population doesn't pay taxes (social security recipients, welfare recipients, etc.) but receives massive benefits they will never vote for someone who is in favor of reducing these benefits in order to solve our debt problems.

before 1776 there was taxation without representation. now there's representation without taxation. it's preposterous. voting is a privelege and only those who pay taxes should be allowed to elect the politicians who will spend them.

I wouldn't go so far and say that The Economist is a right wing publication. Sure, they favor a smaller government vs. a larger one, but the positions that The Economist take are more in line with "Classical Liberalism" than any in other political philosophy.

I think the biggest indicator of the madness that currently is the Republican Party, is that they continue to brand Obama as a socialist, when he's more right-wing than Nixon.

Your definition of "right wing" is so wrong it's laughable. Republicans are far LESS religious today than before, but the media contorts it to such a degree that you think differently. Look at the issue of gay marriage. A lot of the candidates are for equal-treatment civil unions. But since it's not "marriage" they are homophobic. Personally I'm still waiting for my common law canonization, but that another story. Look in the 80s...no candidate Democrat or Republican...hell even in the 1990s would say that they support gay marriage or even similar stuff. Saying that "God is on our side" or that "He will deliver us from these problems" aren't spurring pople to inaction, but rather the opposite. Economic policy wise, this BS Keynesianism stuff has been going oon for less than 100 years. 100 years of waning economic power. Tons of people said that once we lost a clear cut enemy (the USSR) Americas power would decine because the economic base was weak and without the military-based fear/propaganda against the Commies we would fall apart. I don't understand how anyone could look at Europe right now and say that's where we need to head. Every policy Obama outlined in his campaign (thank God he has fulfilled like one) has come straight from Europe. The freest countries economically are like Switzerland and Hong Kong (I know it's not a country) and ... I never would have guessed but they have more right skewed policies. The only reason that universal healthcare works in Switzerland is because most of the money (or at least a very sizable portion) they receive comes from out of the country (hence it doesn't benefit those foreign nationals). No country has a thriving economy and universal healthcare. The more welfare a country has, generally the lower the per capita GDP is. If you want to say "I'd rather everyone make 25k a year than someone make 1m and some not work" then you are a socialist and there is no reason arguing with the reasonless.

The reason that the Democrats are compromising is because the American people are not on their side. Like at all. Every single poll taken is heavily against the Democrats on almost all issues. Universal healthcare. The budget. The debt ceiling. Taxes. Government spending. The list goes on and on. The Republicans refuse to let their constituents down in favor of scoring points with the media and the social elite. The problem with your thinking blastoise is that, like most liberals do (not saying you are one) you think that the mass knows better than the individual. The government better than the citizen. The problem today is that the different populations of the USA are so intrinsically different that it is becoming what occurred to the Austrian Empire years ago. If you don't know- the empire was broken apart by the different ethnic groups clashing because they had massively divergeant needs. Imagine Turkey, Greece and Austria as one state today. that would suck. I'm not saying that the USA should break up, but I did write a paper last year explaining the similarities between the histories of the two states. And believe you me, they are striking.

Fuck it. I wanna live in Texas.

Yes. Richard "We're all Keynesians now" Nixon. The bastion of American politics. You know you've lost when you put a pariah in the forefront.

When all of the Republican parties presidential nominees refuse to concede on a deal that was 10 to 1 cut vs revenue rise that is insane. The fucking national review call them all crazy. You are living in a fantasy.

Thank God we are the only country without universal healthcare. Europe is arthritic and pulling apart at the seams. Why should we emulate them in any way, shape or form?

Yeah, because Brett Baier on Fox News loves calling out Republicans.

First off, I'm not a Democrat nor a Liberal in the American sense of the word. I'm a moderate and have always voted that way. American politics lives on bipartisanship. Unlike Europe, where the ruling party can often make change happen very quickly, our founding fathers created a system that made it difficult to enact change quickly. The same system that founders created to slow increases in the scope of government also make it difficult to quickly reduce it.

Take Reagan, the Republican party's biggest idol. During his presidency, government increased spending on all fronts, not just in the defense department. Sure he's hailed for lowering tax rates, but any monkey can do that. The mark of a true statesman is if he can lower government spending while still providing services that the citizens deem vital.

I've never been a huge fan of democracy ("democ­racy is the worst form of gov­ern­ment, except for all the oth­ers"). I. After all, what right does the majority have in dictating how the minority wish go about their lives? Gay marriage shouldn't be an issue simply because it isn't the government's business. Marriage is a contract. Any two individuals should be allowed to sign it. Period.

Every party thinks "the people" are on their side. They aren't. They like the idea of cutting big bad government spending and waste until they realize where their social security checks come from. When that happens they'll quickly change sides and vote the Democrats in to protect those checks. That's why the Republicans are promising not raise taxes, a position that is without a doubt fiscally irresponsible. No matter what happens, taxes are going to increase for a balanced budget (either through getting rid of the all the tax breaks, increases in tax rates, or a wider a tax base). That's the truth. Just take a look at the numbers in this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/business/economy/why-taxes-will-rise-i...

I will only support the Republicans once they get rid of the tax increase ban.

I don't have time to hit on everything but your reading headlines and not dealing with the facts. The objection to the 10:1 cuts were not that they weren't reasonable, it's that by "cut" it references down the road future spending as defined by our base-line budgeting system.

Additionally, right-wing/left-wing, it doesn't matter. Both sides have deviated FAR from their centrist counterparts of years past. If you don't believe that, I'll refer you to the Dem's excellent example in compromise when they passed Healthcare reform under referendum on a party line vote forcing it through in 2009. Both are guilty of this lacking of compromise, its not all right wingers.

I would offer for consideration that right wing fringe would not have a platform if the previous eight years of "conservatives" not operated as spendthrifts. "W" did as much to create the current problem and inspire the need for a push back to conservative ideology. Dem's aren't compromising anymore than right wing types. They are just extremely vocal about how willing they are but can't document anything they've actually conceded to that the other side wants. They'll mention what they've given up that they knew they'd never get, but can show nothing they've adopted the other side requested. That isn't compromise.

I personally believe that the American consumer is tapped out. They front loaded so much spending during the housing crisis that people have all the goodies. On top of that, they now have woken up to the fact that when you buy on credit, you don't own anything, IT OWNS YOU.

The economy sucks and will suck. It should suck. People acted like drunken retards and need to sober up. The government cannot fix this right now. They are trying everything and it still isn't working.

The two largest parts of GPD (housing and consumer spending) are DOA. Government spending cannot fill the void of both of these.

Personally, if the government wants to do something, they should loosen bankruptcy standard. Let people go bankrupt and clean up their lives. People who should have never owned a home will go back to being renters, banks will smarten up and not lend to people who don't qualify and credit will contract. People will have more FCF, less stress and be able to go on with their life.

^^^lol

As a "modern conservative" I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. We believe in the rule of law and believe the tax base should be extended to as many people and companies as possible. No conservative believes companies should illegally bypass taxation. In fact, we support US companies paying U.S. taxes, which is why we want to reduce corporate tax rates down to 10% or less and simplify the tax code by ending loopholes, which forces companies to pay some taxes versus no taxes. I don't know a single Republican/conservative who supports tax evasion. Legal tax avoidance we do support, but offshore accounts are NOT legal for individuals to avoid taxation. Before I went into business for myself I did extensive research on this before deciding against offshore accounts--because they're illegal. And you won't find any Republican or conservative who supports lawlessness.

Yes, "crazy". We're "crazy" because we believe in balancing the budget within the next 30 years, expanding the tax base from 53% of wage earners onto as many people as possible (including the 47% of people who currently pay no federal income tax), reducing regulation and bureaucracy, and reevaluating the efficacy of return on our federal expenditures by asking the question, "does the program work? Is this program doing what it was intended to do?"

Yep, we must be batsh*t crazy to look at Europe and see what a failure the welfare state is. We're nuts! Well, if that makes me crazy then call me Jack Nicholson.

Dude, what planet are you on?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61147.html

http://www.economist.com/node/18928600

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/04/shutdown

http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2011/08/mainstream-media-ignores-sp-att...

?

I guess I missed something somewhere. Anything you've written in the past I've found to be well thought out. What you posted is simply four articles of finger pointing. Maybe you didn't read my initial response where I disclosed there are fringe right in congress, but included the contagion of leftist equally as rigid. I'll sight Harry Ried's stance on a BBA being a deal breaker and his refusal to let a vote take place if it exists in any proposed legislation. Irony is not the debated issue here but it bares mentioning he proposed and voted for one in 2007.

The take away here for me is though I understand your frustration with the group on the right, you fail to consider how similar behavior is practiced regularly by those on the left, yet when conservatives do it they're "wrong"... Its a double standard and I honestly truly despise hypocrisy.

I appreciate your posting these links, but they define what you previously wrote. All I want to see is an example of compromise to republican ideals that the democrats insist they have been open to. I just don't see one and until I do, they are just as guilty of the rigidity they accuse the right of being and as such bare as much responsibility for the calamitous negotiations around the debt ceiling.

Have you considered that this fringe radical group was the only portion of any Congressional body to propose legislature that met the $4T figure disclosed by S&P and others that would have avoided a downgrade to our sovereign debt. I mean that is what the left was worried about before the deadline approached. A deadline that moved 3 times. If it was so important to them then, why, when agencies told them what they needed to see, weren't they willing to compromise to measures being proposed that would have saved our currency rating?

...yeah, you're on a finance site and it doesn't matter what the truth is. No one here CARES what the truth is. This is all about getting what one can out of the system.

It's very rare you're going to find an honest exchange of ideas: more likely, people are just relentlessly pushing thier agenda and they don't give a shit what's right or wrong.....that's life, get used to it.

Wow, just wow, I cant agree more with you. I was going to say its nothing new, just the acknowledgement of things as they have been for a while, but your tone is far more direct. Kudos.

So, let me get this straight: the problem with America lately is too much Democracy? Or is it that the quality of the people participating in it, on average, is lower. Because if the problem is democratic voting, I think there's worse issues than the debt.....which, by the way, who the fuck is going to "collect" on us? Realistically.

I think its the quality of the voter base in all honesty. There is an enormous amount of misinformed voters on both sides, but lets be realistic about this, one side is considerably worse than the other. The Republican party is a joke internationally, of course they don't care, and fair enough, but its all about perspective and I sometimes think the party and their voter base lack it.

Did you see Carl Rove on Fox News today? He is worried all the Republican candidates are too religious and too far to the right. When Carl Rove thinks your candidates are too far right you have a problem.

AWM - Italian politicians are a joke. French IMF chiefs are a joke. British politicians, who allow their country to be raped for days by insolent entitlement babies, are a joke. Greek politicians are a joke.

You seem to think the rest of the world is so great, yet fail to see how incompetent the rest of the world is.

Also, I fail to see how Republicans did anything wrong. They played hardball, got cuts and didn't raise taxes. Exactly like I wanted them to and exactly like they should have done.

Being a drain doesn't mean they are bad states. The North is where all the cities are, finance is, etc. Of course they will be net contributors. How much industry is in Alabama or Oklahoma? That is what happens when you have a country the size of a continent.

Europe has its shitty countries and its wealthy countries also.

Bachmann and Perry are way way more religious than Bush was. Perry's religious rally had people who claim Oprah is the anti-christ and Muslims are all inbred (and that is a fact!). They are far more explicit with their intention to incorporate Christianity into government and schools. Bush was largely a fairly moderate guy in comparison.

You think so? Again, I am a fairly moderate guy but when was the last time a Democratic party candidate wanted the country to default, wanted to end the census, thought CO2 was a harmless gas because it was produced naturally, and held religious rallies full of nutty hard right evangelicals.

Seriously, I just don't see this bat shit crazy stuff from the Dems. At least not to the same extent. The hard right has far far more pull in this country than the hard left (which largely does not exist in any form in the US government).

Not raising the debt ceiling would not of caused a default, we just would have had to make tough choices. Honestly, both parties played chicken with the issue and the Republicans won.

S&P said cuts were not big enough and revenues were not high enough. The Dems has a token revenue increase. If you want to really increase revenues, you remove all the dam tax credits. Phase out the child tax credit, mortgage interest deductibility, etc.

I personally believe in global warming, but then again, I could be wrong. I honestly could careless who is right, I would like to see less deforestation and more nuclear energy. But then again, I am am rather anti human and pro animal/environment.

To me 10 White Rhinos are more precious than a million people, but I digress.

You need to look at the logical conclusion. If you say global warming is real, you need to do something about it. You need to shut down coal plants, subsidize alternative energy and thereby increase operating costs for American businesses. All for something that might not be a big deal or might not be real (even though I think it is). There are major ramifications for doing certain things.