AMERICA IS NOT YET GONE

... BUT, WITHOUT A CHANGE OF MOOD, IT'S ON ITS WAY...

Paul Krugman in America Is Not Yet Lost makes an excellent depiction of the dismal situation of the USA, comparing it to Poland in the 18C.

"The way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government, and senators should change the rules to end obstructionism."

Constitutional stasis in the USA contrasts with the hyper dynamic constitutional process in Europe. Now, of course, Europe is changing constitutions globally and nationally, and regionally because of European construction. But also the diffuse feeling was left among Europeans, after the war against fascism (1870-1945), that it was most important (namely nothing more important) to have the best constitution imaginable. Even if it meant tinkering with it all the time.


That is one of the reasons for the Euro: to prevent competitive devaluation, a cause of war (for example Germany destroyed its own currency in the 1920s rather than to help repairing North West France that it had just deliberately destroyed, all the way down to telephone poles). True, such a concept as a unique currency brings, in turn, problems, but those can be, in turn, solved, modulo more constitutional tweaking.


In the USA the parliamentary system is broken, in part because the Senate (not really a democratic representation since a Senator in Wyoming represents 200,000 people and one in California, 19 millions!) damages the work of the national assembly (\"Congress\").


In a country such as France, the Senate plays a distinct role from the National Assembly, and both get together with the president in constitutional changes (the so called \"Congres\").


The USA is not yet lost, true, but far gone, already. Only a mighty neurohormonal and cultural reflection will get it out of its plutocratic stupor. And that is hard to do, after decades of cool.


PA