7 Comments

Great interview. Much to agree with, and much that seems too romantic of the past and too cynical about the present. I think China in the WTO and the pursuit of a New World Order is the catalyst for the disarray. Also missing is any acknowledgment of the impacts of massive immigration, population increase and at the same time the US has deindustrialized as replaced by China, Mexico and other mostly Asian countries that sucked away our middle class economic opportunity.

The disarray is, I think, natural, in that the multicultural melting pot that seemed to work and fascinated historians because it almost never worked anywhere else, because the opportunity for the average American to have a good life has been eroded by a shift to rent-seeking and looting by the elites and professional class. Today in my liberal college town with a passed measure to require a majority vote of the residents to approve and peripheral development, every project is defeated and today average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2200 per month, and the average home cost is over $800,000. Keeping their property values high is the motivation. But so is preventing any shift in the political outcomes by allowing a more diverse political population to live here.

These are generally highly educated people well off from the soft money of their government job. They really hate working class people. The economic class and geographic separation is their construct… their control. They have doubled down on it and seem committed to drive further wedges between, not only the economic classes, but every class of separation they can invent.

They are selfish and immoral people that virtue signal luxury beliefs while working to secure their own interests and wealth at the expense of others Americans. The disarray is that we have gone from a nation that rewarded the producer and now rewards the looter.

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So when did Reagan proposed informed patriotism? When his administration was invading Grenada and making horrible actions in Nicaragua ?

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Enjoyed that very thoughtful discussion. It's funny when I hear someone sincerely say something to the effect of "I haven't thought of that before and it sounds interesting but I need to think about it more" I reflexively end up placing more trust weight on the other assertions they make.

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Many good and accurate thoughts in the interview. as regarding optimism, problems with political parties and voters who are misinformed. At the same time, I do not agree with several of Haass proposals. Partly because the USA needs more decentralisation and globalisation, not the opposite.

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A point made during the interview was that the best and brightest are in "financial engineering" rather than where they should be in the "public service". Although at least partially true, the point is neither new nor particularly insightful. The economic future and, therefore, THE FUTURE of the US constitutional democratic republic rest to a large extent on our ability to provide existing goods and services and new goods and services competitively and efficiently whether those goods and services are from the public, private or not-for-profit sectors.

Do our values as a nation support providing goods and services effectively and efficiently? Do our educational systems prepare individuals to provide goods and services that are competitive globally? The answer to both questions is probably "not so much".

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