Peter Crisp wrote:BID0 wrote:Corazon de Leon wrote:lex-man wrote:Corazon de Leon wrote:BID0 wrote:Not to detract from such an important topic but I found this video really interesting about the history that’s led to the end of America as a global leader
It also touches on many points that are related to Brexit too and the warnings that Gordon Brown made about the world economies just the other week.
I don't think America's time as a global leader is at an end quite yet. Their prestige has been damaged, but the country is certainly still one of the most powerful.
I could see it happening over a 40 year time line as the video suggests. It some measures it's already fall been over taken by China.
To be honest, I don't. Trump should serve as a wake up call for the consitutional reform that the country needs to remain at the peak of world politics, but America's size, population, natural resources and position in the world will always mean that it has a seat at the top table and cultural influence over much of the Western world. That's not to say they'll always be number one, but I also don't foresee any major corrosion of the sphere of influence they already have.
IMO, of course.
I think it's too bloated up top now for any change to happen short of a revolution
imagine that with all the gun floating around there. Both main political parties are paid for by corporations which will ensure no such reform can take place.
As macho and bloviating as US gun owners are they massively overestimate how much power they have over the US government. If the US government has the support of the armed forces the gun owners are well and truly strawberry floated.
I don't care how good you are with a gun when they can send in Seal Team 6 to do night raids on the houses of local gun owners and arrest them or just go "strawberry float this gooseberry fool, it's time to get fighty!!" and just blow the gooseberry fool out of those houses with an air strike.
The claim that gun owners can protect the nation from a rogue government is laughable as the power difference between the 2 groups is akin to me going into a ring with Mike Tyson at his prime and claiming that "He's going down in 5th round!!".
I think we're very much looking at worst case scenarios here. In terms of the politics being paid for by corporations, you're probably not too far wrong but at the same time the situation probably isn't too far removed from what's going on in most Western countries behind the scenes - we'll see how that goes in terms of electoral reform. I actually don't think there are many fundamentally broken aspects of U.S. politics, but what needs to be fixed, *really* needs to be fixed.
The idea of the country splitting into two(or more) is interesting, but ultimately I don't think it would happen. The lines of division between north and south certainly still run deep, but there's more at stake now and political ideology changes from town to town in the US so drawing clear demarcation lines to split the country down would be impossible. The idea of state and federal governments having separate jurisdictions is really supposed to stop agitation and although again, I don't think it's perfect, I also don't see the country splitting apart during my lifetime.
Gun ownership and the power of the NRA is a completely different question with its own set of difficulties. I think I'd agree that they're not as powerful as they think they are, but what they do have is high profile devotees(Trump, Kurt Russell, Shawn Michaels, etc etc) who will obfuscate the issue in the press whenever it becomes problematic.