Friday, October 11, 2013

Rampant ideological civil war in the United States of America: 2013 Government shutdown

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



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