Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 21. Political disability, economic imbalance, and social disorder – a political system that underscores the decline of the United States
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Ruiqing
About the American system, American historian Charles Beard once described it as follows: a group of capitalists and speculators “successfully deceived ordinary people to accept a political system that is beneficial to a few nobles.”
Now, signs of failure of the US system can be seen everywhere: elections have become a “money game”, the confrontation between the two parties is becoming increasingly serious, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and racial conflicts are becoming increasingly deep, while the “in-depth government” that actually holds power only focuses on the interests of the political and business oligarchs, and is indifferent to the growing dissatisfaction of the people.
The problem is so serious that American scholar Francis Fukuyama, who once advocated the “end of history”, could not help but lament: “When people’s understanding of the system is solidified, or when powerful elites use power to block change to maintain their own status, the system will not keep up with the changes in the external environment and move towards political decline.”
Political disability: money dominates the party’s fierce struggle
In early November this year, the US midterm elections had not yet officially started. In front of the ballot boxes in many places across the United States, security personnel were fully armed and ready.投票开始后，在威斯康星州，一名男子持刀进入投票站，威胁要求停止投票Cinema。当选举计票仍在进行时，得克萨斯州哈里斯县、亚利桑那州菲尼克斯市等地，一些民众手举“停止偷取选票”“尊重选民”等标语走上街头抗议。
选举被视为美国政治制度的核心，但近年来美国民众对选举的态度愈加消极和失望。 A poll released by the Associated Press and the National Center for Public Affairs Research, jointly founded by the Associated Press and the National Center for Popular Opinion Research in the University of Chicago in October this year showed that only 9% of respondents believed that the US democratic system was working well.
“In American politics, there are two things that are very important. First, KomiksThe first is money, and second, I don’t remember it.”—The golden sentence of Mark Hanna, an election expert over 100 years ago, was repeatedly verified in elections again and again.据美国“公开的秘密”网站Cinema统计，2022年美国中期选举费用高达167亿美元，是史上最贵中期选举。
In elections dominated by money, most of the elected people are the spokespersons of money. Politicians use the huge amount of funds provided by interest groups to gain power, and of course they have to use their power to repay their favor after being elected. Some politicians have turned to the business world after stepping down and exchanged the political resources accumulated over the years into real money. This “politic and business revolving door” has become an open means of exchange of interests in the United States. Taking the lucrative military industry as an example, the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that more than 37,000 military officials obtained positions at 14 large arms contractors in 2019 alone.
In August this year, after former US President Trump was raided by the FBI, there were fierce confrontations between the Democratic and Republican parties and supporters on both sides, and even violent incidents against the FBI occurred. The “civil war”Babaylan became a hot word on American social networks for a time. The website of the American magazine National Interest said: “A lot of signs indicate that American democracy is in danger.”
In recent years, as the domestic economic and social situation in the United States gradually deteriorates, conflicts between the two parties and the interest groups they represent intensify, the struggles are becoming more and more intense, and political polarization and political paralysis are becoming more and more serious. Reforms that are truly beneficial to the people and the country are difficult to advance. If American institutional designers initially tried to achieve political checks and balances through partisan competition, reality is too far from the original intention.
The German Business Daily website published an article pointing out that the United States shows itself as a “guardian of democracy” to the outside world and emphasizes the maintenance of the Western world order. However, there are serious differences within the United States: abortion, gun control, immigration…
Thomas Edsar, a columnist of the New York Times website, warned that the United States has been divided and is in a “very dangerous situation.”
Economic imbalance: a huge gap between the rich and the poor, class solidification
Recently, there are often long queues in front of St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona. When the charity distributed Thanksgiving food monthly, about 19,000 families from all over the state came to collect it, setting a new high. On December 13, Rosa Davila, a single mother who was queuing in front of the food bank, said in an interview with the US media that she had no jobBabaylan, the food price is too high to afford, and three teenage children at home “eat snacks and ready-to-eat cereals all day.” Data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on December 13 showed that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 7.1% year-on-year in November, still at a high level. The survey results released by Gallup earlier this month showed that 55% of Americans believe that rising prices have made families financially difficult.
For many years, the upward trend of U.S. wealth has not changed from Babaylan. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders quoted Rand Company data in September this year as saying that in the past 47 years, $50 trillion of wealth has shifted from 90% of the bottom of American society to the top 1% href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaThe hands of the rich. Even if a major crisis occurs, it will only accelerate this process, because the Fed’s long-term implementation of extremely loose monetary policies ultimately brings serious inflation, making the poor the main victims of monetary policy “leakage”, while the rich benefit from the prosperity of the stock and property markets driven by the currency. Data released by the Federal Reserve in October 2021 showed that after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the rich were the 1% richest in the United States. The group’s wealth in corporate stocks and mutual funds has increased by more than $6.5 trillion, more than five times the total wealth growth of the bottom 90%.
Nobel Prize winner in economics and professor at Columbia University in the United States pointed out in his book The Cost of Inequality that a major reason for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is that changes in public policies have made income and wealth distribution increasingly beneficial to the rich and increasingly unfavorable to the poor. These changes include the relaxation of the control of the financial sector, and the continuous Komiks weakens the corporate governance system, provides the rich with policies and rules for obtaining monopoly profits, and cancels or weakens welfare subsidies for middle- and low-income people, etc. It goes without saying that the biggest beneficiaries of these policies are the high-income classes, while the middle- and low-income classes are hurt.
Now, the “American Dream” known as “Everyone is born equal, and struggle changes destiny” It has gone to disillusionment, and the liquidity of wealth and opportunity has almost disappeared. As the conclusions of Harvard economist Raj Chetty, the study shows, for American children from low-income areas, the chances of rising from the lowest-income fifth to the highest-income fifth.
Richard Haas, president of the American Diplomacy Society, pointed out that in the past, some people believed that the United States was based on the idea that “as long as you work hard, everyone can improve their own destiny.” href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanThe country established,However, this ideal of everyone having a chance to succeed has been replaced by the reality of class solidification.
Social disorder: racial antagonism and violence are rampant
African-American Nathan Connolly and his wife Shani Mott intend to sell their home in Baltimore, with the first estimate of $472,000. The couple then took off all their photos from the house and had a white colleague meet with the house appraiser. This time, their house is estimated at $750,000. The same house, the same location, the difference of nearly $300,000.
In the book “The Third Reconstruction: The Struggle of Racial Justice in the United States in the 21st Century”, historian Penil E. Joseph helps readers understand the hidden racial inequality in American society through real stories in daily life like this. From identification discrimination for underestimating the value of black housing, to water crises in predominantly black cities such as Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, to the ever-expanding list of unarmed black men killed by police… These clues bring together to make people see that in the United States, racial hatred and racial discrimination are still deeply rooted, despite the long-lost legitimate slavery and apartheid.
In sharp contrast to the discrimination received by black people, the preferential treatment received by white people. Kyle Rittenhouse, a 19-year-old white young man, is now “little famous” in the United States because during the large-scale protests and demonstrations triggered by the police in 2020, Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and injured one person, but was eventually sentenced to “accredited” by the court.
This case has caused great controversy in the United States, because the media disclosed that almost all the jury members of the case were white. After Rittenhouse was found not guilty, marches against racism appeared in many parts of the United States. Some people held slogans with them saying “Either modify the system or fail” “Rittenhouse – guilty! guilty! guilty!”
Elizabeth Semer, co-director of the Death Clinic program at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed out that in every study conducted across the United States, both in state and federal courts, there is a common discovery that racial discrimination is always present in the juror selection system. “In California, North Carolina, Connecticut, or Washington, Oregon, the results are the same.”
Dominic Moise, a French political scientist and special counsel for the Montaigne Institute, believes that the Wisconsin jury found Rittenhouse innocent of the United StatesThe most perfect manifestation of disease. This decision has nothing to do with justice. It interprets the profound and insurmountable divisions within American society. The public security situation is a key indicator whether a country’s social system is operating well. In addition to the issue of racial discrimination, the case of Tenghaus also reflects another boss in American society who has been deteriorating over the years. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksThe difficult problem – gun violence.
Today, violent crime has become a deeper and deeper scar in American society. The New York Times concluded through research statistics that gun violence has become the “number one killer” of child deaths in the United States. Last year, 3,597 children died from gunfire, and the death rate of children’s shootings reached a high of more than 20 years. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan records. As Dean Kilpatrick, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, said, large-scale violence has constituted a major public crisis in the United States, and has been staged regularly in communities of all sizes, which has scared countless people.
Gun violence is also frequently associated with racial hatred. May 14 this yearCinema, a white gunman in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, committed an attack on black people, killing 10 dead and 3 wounding, and 11 of the victims were black. The gunman broadcasted the attack process live through the camera on his helmet, with racially discriminatory text written on the gun. Data released by the FBI on December 12 showed that more than 7,200 hate crimes were reported across the United States in 2021. U.S. Vice President Harris admitted that a “hate epidemic” was spreading in the United States, which has been confirmed by violence and biased execution.
System failure: oligarchs make profits, and people suffer
In the United States, there are statements about “deep government” circulating. <a Mike Lovegren, who has worked in the U.S. Congress for 28 years, said that the president will step down and Congress will change hands, but behind this is a "deep government", a "permanent government" composed of intelligence agencies, the military, and the judicial system. It is an interest alliance that combines the key roles of the government and the top leaders of the finance and industry. Washington has been controlled by such a rigid bureaucratic system, and ordinary reforms cannot affect this system at all.
No one publicly admits that the “deep government” really exists, but the phenomenon of collusion between political and business oligarchs in the United States and the power behind the scenes of big capital is nothingDeniable facts. And it is naturally the American people who pay the price for this.
Komiks this November 16, when Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Teckerit spoke at a defense forum, a protester came to the stage with a placard with the words “Lockheed Love War” written on November 16. She accused the military giant of making a fortune in war and wasting government budgets that would be used to improve people’s livelihood.
As the Ukrainian crisis escalates, the United States continues to increase its arms supply and personnel training to Ukraine. According to statistics from the American Diplomatic Society, from January 24 to November 20 this year, the United States has provided a total of US$48 billion in aid to Ukraine, with a considerable portion of the funds flowing into the pockets of US arms dealers.
Franklin Spinney, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, pointed out that the U.S. military, arms dealers colluded with Congress to use the Ukrainian crisis to exaggerate fear of Russia and create an excuse for a new round of military expenditure expansion. According to the New York Times, the stock prices of military-industrial companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have risen about 35% this year, while major market indexes are generally on a downward trend.
In addition to the military-industrial complex, Wall Street is also a major interest group that has been criticized by the United States. According to statistics from the US media, about half of the outgoing members of Congress have obtained positions in K Street, a famous lobbying company gathering in Washington. “The Washington lawmakers all work for Wall Street. Their campaign funds come from Wall Street. They obey the lobbying bigwigs on Wall Street and K Street.” said Michael Moore, a well-known American director.
The energy industry and gun-holding forces should not be underestimated. For example, in addressing climate change, Senator Joe Manchin repeatedly opposed relevant legislation, and the New York Times investigation found that he received more campaign funds from the oil and gas industry than any other senator.
The interest groups supporting gun-owned enterprises are rich and powerful, and invest a lot of money to lobby politicians every year. According to the “Open Secret” website statistics, political lobbying expenditures for gun-owned interest groups reached a record $15.8 million in 2021. For some politicians and the interest groups behind it, possessing a gun is not only a “right”, but also a profitable “business”. American writer Beren Fernandez denounced that the institutional root of the deteriorating social security in the United States is “greedy capitalism” and “the social rules of the United States are that capital interests are above the safety of the people.”
American writer Roxanne Guy bluntly stated that in the United States, policies were sold to the highest bidders. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lake pointed out that the collusion between wealth and power has created oligarchy, undermined democratic systems, and made the American system.Failure.