America Needs to Be Aware of Its Own Decline

The "real Americans" of the GOP who worship insularity and ignorance of the world typified by Sarah Palin and other politicians who know little of the world outside of the USA's borders and who seem to have no interest in educating themselves on anything beyond slogans and sound bites on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh's radio rants are causing real harm to the nation and its future. The world is changing and the USA needs to recognize these changes - the emergence of China, the inherent instability of the political systems in the Middle East, etc. - and change itself along with unstoppable forces driving change around the globe. Instead, these folks want to cling to a 1950's and 1960's mindset and a version of America that never even really existed. An article in The Atlantic looks at this dangerous phenomenon and makes the case of why it needs to change. Here are some highlights:
*
I think it's important, as the age of U.S. unipolarity ends, for American conservatives to see the world in terms of an international society and not just a Hobbesian, dog-eat-dog system. . . . . The reason it is especially important now for Americans to recognize the societal dimension of international life is that America is in decline.
*
That's not a statement of opinion and is not intended to suggest that America's current economic malaise is permanent, because that probably isn't the case. But no matter how strongly the U.S. bounces back, it is a mature economy and unlikely ever to match China's growth rates. China also has a much larger population, so it can overtake the American economy even while its citizens remain much poorer; by some measures, China is already the world's largest economy.
*
If you're thinking America has previously faced down a peer competitor (the Soviet Union) and won handsomely, keep in mind that China is already a much larger economic force that Soviet Russia ever was, and that China is not done yet. Nor is India, or Indonesia. In fact, the "great convergence" between developed and developing economies is the economic and strategic story of our age.
*
[I]n the multipolar order to come, international society will be far more important to the U.S.
*
[I]nternational political life has its own laws, institutions, traditions and norms, which can be knitted together into a loose "constitutional" order. In an environment where one great power is rising and another is in decline (a situation that, historically, almost always creates conflict), such an order will be far more convivial than one marked by a naked contest of power. And given that traditions and institutions, by definition, take generations to establish, the U.S. cannot begin building them soon enough.
*
Now, if there are any conservatives left reading this post, they may well be thinking that this all sounds rather ... well ... progressive. In my next post, I want to explain why conservatives can't just dismiss this as a lefty CINO (conservative-in-name-only) plot.
*
A refusal to accept objective reality be it in the realm of economics, international relations or societal change is a hallmark of today's GOP and its Christianist and Tea Party allies. Ignoring the truth doesn't somehow magically make it untrue. Proper change in policies and institutions can only prosper when one is willing to recognize objective fact - something the GOP no longer even pretends to do as it panders for short term gain with no view to the future.