Rampant ideological civil war in the United States of America:
2013 Government shutdown
We are in a period of very bad key historical precedents for the American
economy, democracy and leadership around the world. First, the US credit rating
was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s from AAA (outstanding) to AA+
(excellent) in 2011. Second, the possibility to default on the debt of our country
for the 1st time in history could be a reality on October 17, 2013. Realization
of this possibility should not be a surprise to Americans and the rest of the
world. It is the logic of a political culture that undermine the value of an
institution. Our political system is experiencing the consequences of a of
theorization of “Starving The Beast”
(STB) by the Republican Party. The government shut down is coherent with the
logic of the obscure concept of “Big Government”. This is why the democratic
process and the continuity of the government are suspended. The concept of “Big
Government” was developed as a negative function of democracy and economic growth.
Consequently, by nature Government is an anti-thesis of democracy. This is why
the current position of the “Former Republican Party” is not a surprise. The
logic of “Big Government” leads a progressive erosion of democratic value and
destruction of the system. Karl Rove’s statement: “Our objective is to create a
permanent Republican majority” is an expression of this reality.
The government shut down is a step in this direction. Default on
the “Full faith and credit of the US Government” could be the next step in this
process of destruction of an institution of US democracy. The political battle
about the debt ceiling is another step of this process of shrinking the size of
the US government, which means to make this institution irrelevant. The
objective of “Starving The Beast” (STB) is to cripple the functioning of our
democracy. We are already in the dynamic of limitation of universal suffrage
and exclusion of US citizen from the electoral process. Government is not an
adversary of a political party or an ideology; it is an institution of our
democracy. The current management of our democracy with succession of crises
can be stopped, only if we can create a radical shift in the formation of our
political thinking.
The government shut down is a corollary of the concept of “Big
Government”. “Starving The Beast” (STB) is a long term strategy of ideological
marketing of this concept with an objective to create a “waterfalls” of crisis
in the management of the US democracy. These crises are at the origin of current
dysfunctionality of our democracy. “Starving The Beast” is an evisceration of
democratic institution, consequently weaken our political system. The concept is
anti-democratic by nature. This is why the T-party and the former Republican
Party are loosing ground in our democracy.
The dynamic of this crisis strengthen President Obama’s position.
My first essay (October 29, 2010) was title: “ BIOLOGY OF DEMOCRACY
The T-party: an asset for Obama”. My political analysis of the
T-party was correct, this organization is a fantastic asset for President Obama
and the Democratic Party. The government shut down is also an indication that
“Bipartisanship” no longer meets the political exigencies of the 3rd
millennium. Bipartisanship is a political structure of the 20th century.
The imperative to innovate a new political structure is here. Our democracy is
challenged by this reality. This is why I write the blog: biologyofdemocracy.blogspot.com
In this blog I wrote: “ Temptation of conquest of power and degradation of democracy are the
two most important political risk of bipartisanship. This political structure
has a propensity to transform productive symmetric relationship into an
irreversible and unproductive asymmetry. Deterioration of political relations
between the two parties is the consequence of this political risk.”
“If
Washington is dysfunctional, bipartisanship is also dysfunctional. The
resignation of Olympia Snow (Republican-Maine) from the US Senate is the
ultimate demonstration of this dysfunctionality. She stated: “There’s no
longer political reward for consensus building.” When the Republican Party’s
leading presidential contenders declare at a debate that they would oppose any
deal that cut $10 of spending and raise taxes by $1, she thought the position
was extreme.”
“Transformation of government to
a political adversary, is ideological marketing to depreciate one of the 3
powers of our democracy and open more doors for successful conquest of power.”
“Political dualism is the center
for development of irreconcilable antagonism. Dualism generates a process of
identification of the other party as the most important obstacle to power and
consequently develops a desire for total elimination of that party as a mean of
conquest of power. In the political culture of former Republican Party, the
Democratic Party is an obstacle to conquest of power and the right to vote for
all American citizens is the second obstacle.”
“Bipartisanship has divided our country into multiple dualism:
republicans and democrats; big government and small government; private sector
and public sector. We became more republicans and democrats than Americans.
This culture of division of Americans into two camps stifles innovative
political thinking and creation of new innovative political organizations. If
we want to keep our position as world leader and improve the well being of
Americans, our nation political structure must be innovative and open channels
of new political energies.”
The government shutdown is a result of increased inefficiencies of
Bipartisanship. We are in the 3rd millennium; the digital revolution
is creating radical transformations in the United States of America and around
the world. But, the ideological structure of Bipartisanship is totally
incompatible with the extraordinary innovations of our time. Ideological
solutions of the 20th century are obsolete; we are now in a world of
“Rational Solutions” created by digital revolution. The creation of the
political group “No Labels” (http://www.nolabels.org) is an excellent first
step in the innovation of a new political structure in this period of a 3rd
industrial revolution. “No Labels” is a solutions-oriented group. The creation
of this group is a response to the need to go beyond ideologies of the 20th
century. “No Labels” has the potential to be the political platform of
“Rational Solutions”. The digital revolution is creating Rational Solutions
with development of E-government. We are now in the world of transformations
and radical shifts define by Efficiency. Development of the digital revolution
is creating “Efficient Government”. In this universal dynamic of 3rd
industrial revolution, government will be not “big” or “small”, it will be Efficient.
Dynamic of radical shift is transforming government to an Intelligent
structure. Bipartisanship must adapt to this new reality. The future of
American society will be shape by increase efficiency of our public and private
institutions, but not by ideological solutions of the past. This is how our
democracy will be transformed in the 3rd millennium. We are the world
leader of knowledge economy, we should be the world leader of “Efficient
government”. Digital technology is the driver of this transformation.
Our position in health care can be improved, if our political
leadership demonstrates an ability to go beyond ideology and innovate “Rational
Solutions”. We are the world’s wealthiest country, but our health care system
is number 46 among the 48 countries studied by Bloomberg. Only Serbia
and Brazil are behind the USA according to this study. As a world number one
economy, we can do better in health care.
Here is Bloomberg list of the 10 best
performing nations:
No 1: Hong Kong {Efficiency score: 92.6-Life expectancy: 83.4
Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita): 3.8%-Healthcare cost (per
capita): $1,409} - No. 2: Singapore {Efficiency score: 81.9,Life expectancy: 81.9
Healthcare cost (%
GDP per capita): 4.4%, Healthcare cost (per capita): $2,286} - No. 3: Japan {Efficiency
score: 74.1, Life expectancy: 82.6-Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita): 8.5% Healthcare
cost (per capita): $3,958} - No. 4: Israel {Efficiency score: 68.7-Life
expectancy: 81.8-Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita): 7.8%-Healthcare cost (per
capita): $2,426 } - No. 5: Spain { Efficiency score: 68.3-Life expectancy: 82.3-Healthcare
cost (% GDP per capita): 10.4%-Healthcare cost (per capita): $3,027} - No. 6:
Italy {Efficiency score: 66.1Life expectancy: 82.1-Healthcare cost (% GDP per
capita): 10.4% Healthcare cost (per capita): $3,436} - No. 7: Australia { Efficiency
score: 66.0-Life expectancy: 81.8-Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita):
8.9%Healthcare cost (per capita): $5,939 } - No. 8: South Korea {Efficiency
score: 65.1-Life expectancy: 80.9-Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita): 7.2%-Healthcare
cost (per capita): $1,616} - No. 9: Switzerland {Efficiency score: 63.1-Life
expectancy: 82.7-Healthcare cost (% GDP per capita): 11.5%-Healthcare cost (per
capita): $9,121} - No. 10: Sweden {Efficiency score: 62.6-Life expectancy: 81.8-Healthcare
cost (% GDP per capita): 9.6% - Healthcare cost (per capita): $5,331} - (Bloomberg
Visual Data)
The full list shows that Algeria, Chile, China, Mexico,
Poland, Portugal and Iran are doing better than the USA. We are the second
country that spends more in health care cost per capita ($8,608) than any other
country. Switzerland is number one, with
$9,121 per capita. Universal health care is more than the ideological
position of a sitting US president, or the political competition between
Democrats and Republicans. It is about better quality of live of all Americans.
The city of Camden (New Jersey) is an example to follow.
Aboubacar Sissoko
