{"id":5404,"date":"2011-06-29T21:30:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T04:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?p=5404"},"modified":"2014-01-09T10:23:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T17:23:37","slug":"no-longer-rome-not-yet-greece-andora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/no-longer-rome-not-yet-greece-andora\/","title":{"rendered":"No Longer Rome, Not Yet Greece.  Andora?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p> In a press conference today the president vented his frustration at the latest example: partisan cliffhanging about lifting the country&#8217;s debt ceiling. The obstacles lie both in Washington, where the heart of the problem is the supermajority hurdle in the Senate, and in many individual states. A magnificent constitutional framework of checks and balances, designed to prevent the return of British tyranny, has atrophied into a system that makes reform almost more difficult than revolution.<\/p>\n<p>And this, too, is familiar from history. Over time, superpowers acquire dysfunctionalities which they can carry because of their sheer plenitude of wealth and power, rather as a super-strong athlete can carry deficiencies in technique. When your strength wanes you suddenly need the technique; but it may be too late to get it back. Beside technique, there is the all-important confidence. But the old American can-do optimism is shaken. Even those who most loudly proclaim American exceptionalism strike a note of cultural pessimism. &#8220;It&#8217;s breaking my heart,&#8221; emotes Glenn Beck, &#8220;to see this nation basically going down the tubes.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b>O<\/b>ne has to be tolerant of Continental <i>Schadenfreude<\/i>. History&#8217;s perverse humor is revealed by Dominique de Villepin and Chirac as our Greek chorus. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/cifamerica\/2011\/jun\/29\/america-must-look-to-its-laurels\"> Timothy Garton Ash actually thinks there&#8217;s a way out of the American cul de sac.<\/a>  But he wonders if political dysfunction will win out.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/GreeceAndRome.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/GreeceAndRome.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"I&#039;ve Seen Things You People Wouldn&#039;t Believe - B-52 ARC LIGHT Strikes Off The DMZ, Walmart On Black Friday - All Those Moments Will Be Lost In Time. . .\" width=\"600\" height=\"568\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5405\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/GreeceAndRome.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/GreeceAndRome-300x284.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>O<\/b>bama and the Democrats will go to the polls on the message &#8216;we suck less.&#8217;  That was the Peanut Farmer&#8217;s, too.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a press conference today the president vented his frustration at the latest example: partisan cliffhanging about lifting the country&#8217;s debt ceiling. The obstacles lie both in Washington, where the heart of the problem is the supermajority hurdle in the Senate, and in many individual states. A magnificent constitutional framework of checks and balances, designed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[27,259],"class_list":{"0":"post-5404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-imperial-twilght","7":"tag-economic-reform","8":"tag-foreign-policy","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}