Daily Times

The US has endured and suffered through days of triumph and tragedy. Among the latter have been the stock market crashes of September 28 and 29, 1929; Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941; John Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963; and of course September 11, 2001 that needs no elaboration. Joining that infamous collection will be August 2, 2011.

On that day, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law legislation raising the debt ceiling and borrowing capacity of the US while making about a trillion dollars of spending cuts to its already swollen deficit-ridden budget. About three quarters of Americans polled regarded this action as “ridiculous” or worse. And critics from both left and right vehemently attacked the measure in the most damning terms, ranging from doing incalculable economic damage to beating a cowardly retreat from the realities of the fiscal crisis at hand.

But those interpretations and criticisms miss the larger point. What the White House and Congress wrought must be seen as the high water mark of what government can do, not the low point. August 2nd has set the new standard for the best possible outcome government can obtain, not the worst. The reasons why arise from a government that seems irreversibly broken and that has turned the American political system on its head.

The US is supposed to be a democracy. In most democracies, majority vote normally rules. Yet, that is not the case. Instead, a tyranny of the minority now dictates politics.

In the Senate, 60 is the number of votes needed to assure absolutely passage of legislation. The Democrats have 53. Hence, without the remaining seven that must come from the Republicans, the minority rules.

In the House of Representatives, votes from a block of 60-70 Tea Party Republicans are essential to pass legislation even though Republicans hold a majority. Those representatives were elected by a small slice of the electorate. Yet, they were able to hold the debt ceiling bill hostage.

But the death knell to the political system designed by the best minds of the 18th century on the basis of checks and balances is the cascading number of tough and even intractable issues that cut across all aspects of American life, from entitlements and subsidies to national security and rules and regulations to govern our social and economic behaviour. Many of these issues such as healthcare, social security and keeping the nation safe from harm are so complex and difficult just on their own that obtaining a consensus of the majority is virtually impossible. And ideology has grown more rigid and vitriolic.

Both the left and right have been abducted by the extremes in which stands on ‘gays, guns, God and gestation periods’ may affect winning office more than knowledge and understanding of the facts of a given issue. The atmosphere surrounding both ends of Pennsylvania has become toxic and septic and 24-hour news coverage along with media ideologues pervert even genuine intellectual and political differences into titanic battles for the US’s soul.

The consequences of this breakdown are sadly clear. While we remain the greatest economic and military power on the globe, unless our political system is cleansed of these ills, American leadership will be lost for a very long time. The American dream will be replaced by diminished expectations and lower standards of living for most Americans. The maxim that future generations will be better off will become a delusion.

The counter-argument is that through American exceptionalism and technology, this too will pass. In the midst of the 1930s depression, John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would make life several times better for future generations. Unfortunately, while true then, that has not always held historically and unless scores of nations are able to deal with domestic economic crises more or less simultaneously and harmoniously, the broader prospects are not good for a long time.

Solutions here are easy to invent and probably impossible to implement. Allowing presidents to serve more than two terms will at least not exclude the benefit of experience from the Oval Office. Extending terms of House members to four years will permit more time for governing and less for campaigning. And requiring all eligible Americans to vote will overwhelm the power of extreme elements and money to dominate the electoral system because a large number of those new voters represent the centre.

Of course, none of the above will occur. Politicians will not be able to take on the tough issues with any chance of real success and the gold standard for measuring the best performance government can achieve will be the debt ceiling bill.

A new day of infamy will enter the lists. It will be August 2, 2011 — mark my words.

The writer is Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council and Chairman of the Killowen Group that advises leaders of government and business