Power, Politics and the Presidency
As we stand amazed, bemused and befuddled at the latest Washington soft shoe shuffle that is being danced to the tune of the debt ceiling what becomes increasingly apparent is the inability of the federal government to run a washing machine let alone the most 'powerful' nation-state in the World. Who or what is to blame if anyone, if any one thing for this latest farrago ? What does it tell us about the contemporary condition of this pre-eminent nation-state ? What does it tell us about the power of the presidency?
Primarily, this political impasse has little to do with money but everything to do with power, recognition and identity. The Republicans are, seemingly, holding the nation to ransom over the implementation of Obamacare by stopping the government from borrowing more money - they have already managed to halt further government spending. However, these radical conservatives(the Tea Party) who are at the heart of this latest dispute are playing for high stakes, they are in essence fighting for the survival of their understanding of what the US stands for and what to be an American actual means. Paradoxically, they trying to keep hold of a vision of the US that has already passed by if it ever existed in the first place; a United States that practised as well as preached a sense of freedom and justice that promoted and protected the assumed benefits and 'natural rights' of Anglo Saxon superiority. This sense of racist elitism that continues to be smuggled via a narrative of traditional values, histories and declared destinies is a ideological distortion of a contemporary society that continues to draw its imagination, innovation and reinvigoration from immigration.
The gradual growth of Hispanic and Asian influences in American society is undoubtedly altering, adjusting and reconfiguring the United States as this ability for the nation to reinvent itself has always been one of their real sources of power. So, if these so called traditionalists really want 'their nation-state' to remain pre-eminent -a community that continues to offer fresh and just ideals - they should embrace this latest series of societal developments and stop trying to relive a history of their na that only survives in the minds of insulationists and bigots.
KK
Primarily, this political impasse has little to do with money but everything to do with power, recognition and identity. The Republicans are, seemingly, holding the nation to ransom over the implementation of Obamacare by stopping the government from borrowing more money - they have already managed to halt further government spending. However, these radical conservatives(the Tea Party) who are at the heart of this latest dispute are playing for high stakes, they are in essence fighting for the survival of their understanding of what the US stands for and what to be an American actual means. Paradoxically, they trying to keep hold of a vision of the US that has already passed by if it ever existed in the first place; a United States that practised as well as preached a sense of freedom and justice that promoted and protected the assumed benefits and 'natural rights' of Anglo Saxon superiority. This sense of racist elitism that continues to be smuggled via a narrative of traditional values, histories and declared destinies is a ideological distortion of a contemporary society that continues to draw its imagination, innovation and reinvigoration from immigration.
The gradual growth of Hispanic and Asian influences in American society is undoubtedly altering, adjusting and reconfiguring the United States as this ability for the nation to reinvent itself has always been one of their real sources of power. So, if these so called traditionalists really want 'their nation-state' to remain pre-eminent -a community that continues to offer fresh and just ideals - they should embrace this latest series of societal developments and stop trying to relive a history of their na that only survives in the minds of insulationists and bigots.
KK
RSS Feed
