In Thomas Friedman's latest NYTimes column, "Anxious in America", he makes the case that rebuilding Iraq will not be the big issue in the next election - it will be rebuilding America. He's been writing a lot recently about our pathetic oil dependence and need for alternative energy development, including a recent column "Mr. Bush: Lead or Leave" that really lays it out.
His latest column details many ways in which America is on the wrong track right now: low savings rates, high consumer debt, food prices soaring... and then one paragraph jumped out at me:
"My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working."
He gives lots of concrete, specific examples to back up his assertions, and concludes with:
"If the old saying — that “as General Motors goes, so goes America” — is true, then folks, we’re in a lot of trouble. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, G.M. shares sank to a 34-year low last week.
That’s us. We’re at a 34-year low. And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters."
Scary, but quite possibly true. As prophets go, this is a man that I listen to.
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