Political Discussions

Can A Democrat Save The United States?

Posted by gtcathey • 10/14/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Democrat, election, President

There was nowhere to post it as a shameless blog promotion. I just put together a little something of my thoughts about this years election in the form of a blog post. Your comments on my page would be most welcome, for or against what I am saying. Thanks to all.

imablogger.net/2008/10/14/can-a-democrat-save-the-united-states/

User Comments

10/14/08

globalgirl

Can A Democrat Save The United States?

No.

[reply]
1. 10/14/08
  
  gtcathey
  
  LOL! Love the quick short answer, Global Girl. I agree with you!
10/14/08

cooper

We've suffered one of the most epic collapses of a world power in modern history, nothing is going to save us in that sense.

[reply]
1. 10/15/08
  
  opinionstreams
  
  I fear that, cooper. America arose as a unipolar power only 18 years ago, and it enjoyed unbridled power in that regard until about 2003, when countries started soft-balancing against our efforts in Iraq. Under Bush's fumbled presidency, the concept of America as a unipole has come into increasing doubt, owing to his borish foreign policy, his wasteful economic policy, his squander of our military resources, and the damage he's done to our trustworthiness.
  
  I do not think we have collapsed, however, as we still possess nearly all of the resources we enjoyed going into the unipolar ascendancy and we still have the most robust economy and the most advanced (yet not necessarily adaptive) military in the world. We're not too far gone to make a turnaround.
10/14/08

satijournal

With the U.S. debt now over ten trillion dollars, it could be we're too far gone.

[reply]
10/14/08

RuinousRight

Hard to say after the downward spiral of the past 8 years, but I believe Obama has a much better shot at it than McCain. McCain wants to continue the ruinous policies of Bush/Cheney. Obama wants to move in a different direction. The latter seems like a better bet.

[reply]
10/14/08

clioandme

Wrong question. We have to do it. But it will help if we elect the right people in office. Go Democrats!

Course they'll have a nasty old mess to clean up. Huge deficit. Lame economy. Two wars. And a civic culture in which the radical right wing of the Republican party is considered "normal."

[reply]
10/14/08

jan4insight

We wouldn't need to "save the US" if the Repug's hadn't been busy flushing it down the toilet for the last 12 years.

(8 years Bush 2 regime + 4 years Repug-dominated Congress before that = 12 years of stealing the country blind.)

[reply]
10/15/08

xmarks

No politician can save us. The United States will only be saved from our own self destruction if many of us work hard and sacrafice for it.

[reply]
1. 10/15/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Exactly.
10/15/08

opinionstreams

I haven't read your article yet, gt, but whenever I have a political post to promote, I use "shameless blog promotion" in the main discussion board asking people to look at it and simultanously post a substantive discussion in the political forum. I place a link to the political discussion in my main discussion "blog promossion" thread, aking visitors to go there if they want to discuss the substance of the article.

Here's an example: www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/highly-anticipated-new-article-in-case-fo...

Just a suggestion. It maximizes exposure and stays within the guidelines.

[edit: Okay, I read your article. Nice. I'm leaving a comment.]

[reply]
10/15/08

Anok

Like Xmarks said above, no one person can "save a country". This isn't some epic movie where just one good hero with all the right attributes will save us from disaster.

However, given the choices, this democrat vs this republican - the democrat has some better policies that can, at the very least, slow the process down and allow us, the citizens to regroup and save our own asses.

[reply]
10/15/08

satijournal

The Republican policy of deregulation is what got us into this mess, and McCain, who is now saying we NEED regulation to fix the problem, has been one of the staunchest opponents of regulation throughout his career. And his chief economic adviser, Phill Gramm, was one of the main authors of the deregulation that led to our current economic problems.

There was an article in the Washington Post today about it:
In 2004, the SEC pursued another voluntary system. This one, too, didn't work out quite as hoped.

For years, Congress had allowed a huge gap in Wall Street oversight: the SEC had authority over the brokerage arms of investment banks such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, but were in the dark about deals made by the firms' holding companies and its unregulated affiliates. European regulators, demanding more transparency given the substantial overseas operations of U.S. firms, were threatening to put these holding companies under regulatory supervision if their American counterparts didn't do so first.

For the SEC, this was deja vu. In 1999, the SEC had sought such authority over the holding companies and failed to get it. Late in the year, Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, dismantling the walls separating commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies since the Great Depression. But the act did not provide for any SEC oversight of investment bank holding companies. The momentum was all toward deregulation.

"I remember saying at the time, people don't get it -- the level of missed opportunities to address some of these problems," said Annette Nazareth, then the SEC's head of market regulation. "It was an absolute siege on regulation."

Five years later, the European regulators were forcing the issue again. Restricted by Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the SEC proposed a voluntary system, which the big investment banks opted to join. The holding companies would be permitted to follow their own computer models to assess how much risk they were taking; the SEC would get access to make sure the complex capital and risk-management models were up to the job.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403343.ht...

[reply]
10/15/08

gtcathey

So everyone would agree that this election is one of the most important elections in a good while then, huh?

[reply]
1. 10/15/08
  
  RuinousRight
  
  The most important election of my lifetime.... that's for sure.