America: Once the Most Respected Nation in the World; What Happened?

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/America-Once-the-Most-Res-by-michael-payne-110615-351.html

What happened? Well, that's really not difficult to explain. America once was the most respected, and admired, nation in the world. But then, suddenly, things began to change quite radically and, over a period of several decades, America went from being the most respected nation in the world to the most feared. Going from the most respected to the most feared is quite a feat, so how did such a transformation evolve?

We might call what happened to America "the good cop, bad cop" syndrome. After World War II, the U.S. was highly respected and thought of as that good cop that had led the efforts to defeat the primary Axis powers of Germany and Japan. After that war, it had, more or less, assumed the role of protector of the world.

America is no longer viewed as a protector of the world but, rather, a mighty military force that is protecting its own national interests. Quite a reversal of roles, is it not? The skies are full of our air power; the seas teeming with our fleets; and a large part of the world is garrisoned with our military installations and troops. The America of today is largely being viewed as the bad cop after its invasions and occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan over the past decade.

If I had to come up with one word to describe the dramatic change that has come over America during the last half of the 20th century and thus far in the 21st, it would be - rampant Militarism. It's as if an obsessive-compulsive behavioral disorder had entered the body of America, one that is totally resistant to any known treatment. It's a condition that is not improving over time but is continuing to grow with ever more intensity.

More at the link --

[fredamae]

1. We were "Republi-fucked" n/t

[Lint Head]

2. This is what happened.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

18. REPUBLICANS HAVE AND ARE DESTROYING ALL THEY CAN

[indepat]

42. Let's see if we can count the number of RW-dictators/despots propped up and the number of

left-wing regimes overthrown since WWII, all of which would seem a good measure of defining us as a nation/people, our national character. :patriot:

[Javaman]

3. neo-cons and reagen-omics.

everything else is tied directly to them.

[Fumesucker]

4. Oderint Dum Metuant- Let them hate so long as they fear.

-attributed by Seneca to the playwright Lucius Accius

We become more like ancient Rome every day.

[izquierdista]

7. Including the vomitoria

[RKP5637]

5. In short, American Imperialism, "an obsessive-compulsive behavioral disorder." And for

some huge profits. It's a compulsion to ripoff the world. And now we are starting to devour ourselves at home.

[HopeHoops]

6. The shrub.

[liberal N proud]

8. KKKarl Rove, bu$h-Cheney, rummsfeld and Kindasleazy.

And the whole republican party who supported them.

[MrScorpio]

9. We globalized the economy

We decided that a permanent wartime economy was important

We decided that citizens could be marginalized

We didn't think that ordinary people could be the crux of our society

We lost our way

[ChiciB1]

10. America = Rome... Military Might WILL NOT SAVE US!!! And, UNFORTUNATELY

Obama and our very own Democrats seem oblivious to all of this!

Did I hear Joey Scar & someone else say this AM that they are now NOT VERY SURE that Obama can get re-elected? I was walking by, ready to TURN IT OFF because my husband had left the house and that's what I THOUGHT I heard. I can no longer watch/listen to the stuff that MSM spews, where once I was one who avidly hung on everything that came down the pike. My husband does want to get a smattering of the junk, but for me... NOT ANY MORE!

Yep, I've called myself an ostrich more than once this past year, but my "Personal Constitution" simply can't take the crappola anymore! It truly sickens me!

[RKP5637]

20. I heard that on his show this morning. I find his show a lot of crap, I only listen

to snippets of it, but basically it's a BS show and is pretty lame IMO. I don't know too many people that bother to listen to it anymore. (in ref. to your posting) I agree so much, "Obama and our very own Democrats seem oblivious to all of this!"

I've read a growing number of Americans have just had it with the Rs and the Ds and just ignore them all. I guess we do that at our own peril, but I really find the US to be such a backward place anymore and MSM for the most part is worthless. On its present course I fear the US isn't going anyplace in the 21st century except to be an aggressor.

[ChiciB1]

24. Yeah, Can't Stand The Show Myself... But As I Said Hubby Was Listening

for a while after our local news gave us a weather update. I don't know why he switches to them from time to time, but he does.

I lost HOPE a long time ago and I was most certainly the MOST political one in our family. Having worked so hard in the trenches for so many, many years I finally have reached my "burn out" point.

Just have to sit back, wait and wonder what the hell happened, even though I DO know pretty much the process that got us to this point. We are such a silly, silly Nation anymore that seems only to care about American Idol etc., etc.!

[RKP5637]

31. I watched the republican presidential hopefuls the other night, most of it,

and my conclusion was we're in deep doo doo as a nation if this is the best that can be offered up as presidential material. I don't want to sound panicky or doom and gloom, but I am quite concerned about what kind of an America we are going to be living in during my remaining lifetime.

IMO, anymore, the concept of quality of life, dignity and equality in the nation is a fleeing memory. All I seem to hear anymore is RW suppression and I also hold many democrats accountable for buying into RW suppression thinking that makes them electable.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

23. MOSTLY PROPAGANDA

[Peacetrain]

11. Familiarity breeds contempt..

[nichomachus]

12. We were respected by people

Who didn't know what we were really up to. People whose democratically elected governments we were overthrowing or whose resources we were stealing had a different view. Those chickens are now coming home to roost.

[OHdem10]

13. 30years of Republican Rule and that Conservative Economic

Fundamentalism which in turns affects every aspect
of our culture.

[RKP5637]

21. And many Americans still don't get it and vote in their worst possible interest. n/t

[CarmanK]

14. W and Cheney happened and all went to HELL!!

The duo with their traitorous cohorts used the power of the nation to enhance the wealth of their political allies and weaken our nation. Our democracy is under assault and we as a nation of peoples are still trying to figure out what happened. Unfortunately, the dems are still trying to figure it out also. The KOCHroaches and Murdogs have combined their resources with the greed and ambitions of the republican party and abandoned the american democracy in favor of plutocracy.

[robcon]

15. America is still the most respected nation in the world.

n/t

[Ikonoklast]

16. Well, if we kill more of those people that complain about us, it will eventually stop.

I see the need for an even bigger military.

[Hutzpa]

17. Two words: Organised Crime n/t

[GeorgeGist]

19. Tried to fool the World once too often./nt

[Arugula Latte]

22. Reagan. nt

[Ganja Ninja]

25. Being on top is easy.

Staying on top is the tricky part.

We got complacent. We squandered our natural resources as if they would never run out. Once they fell to the point where we had to start buying them abroad our fate was sealed. Had we recognized how much we were wasting we might have delayed our decline. But we were to proud to question our own success and we refused to change. Now we have to change and we're still trying to cling to our old lifestyle. It's only dragging us down even further.

[NorthCarolina]

26. What happened? Jesse Jackson ran for President in 1988...and that

fostered the creation of the DLC (now called New Dems).

"The so-called New Democrats with whom Barack Obama identifies are, next to the House Blue Dogs, the most rightwing of Democratic reps in Congress, with considerable overlap between the two groups."

Link: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/president-obama-declares-his-dlc-allegiance-says-i-am-new-democrat

[Octafish]

27. November 22, 1963

The United States of America had a President with Vision

[RKP5637]

32. I still cling to that memory, it keeps me going and hopeful for another, I thought

we might have had that in 2008, but I've been quite disappointed.

[Octafish]

36. Did you see Poppy at Ford's funeral?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3029417

His ilk works overtime to make certain another doesn't come our way any time soon.

[RKP5637]

40. No, hadn't seen it. Thanks!!! n/t

[Octafish]

41. Found the video...

Courtesy of our friends at CBS:

...After a deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy,
our nation turned to Gerald Ford and a select handful of others
to make sense of that madness.
And the conspiracy theorists can say what they will,
but the Warren Commission report will always have the final definitive say
on this tragic matter.
Why? Because Jerry Ford put his name on it
and Jerry Ford’s word was always good...

The big smile comes in at the 1:03 mark (after the :30 commercial).

[RKP5637]

45. Thanks!!! n/t

[pscot]

28. We got into the habit of lying to ourselves

It's deadly.

[RKP5637]

33. Good point! We tell lies into our MSM echo chamber and then they're repeated back

to the masses until believed, a form of brainwashing. As you said, "We got into the habit of lying to ourselves. It's deadly."

[philly_bob]

29. Hayek economics, Norquist politics, Rand narcissism, no liberal leaders. (nt)

[strawberryfield]

43. As I understand Hayek

Everything he said can be basically reduced two points:


1. The expansion of government results in a reduction of individual liberty. (This was obvious bullshit even in Hayek's day, but even more so now).

and

2. The private sector will always be able to morph faster than government's ability to regulate it. Hayek's conclusion here was that it was futile to even try. (I actually think that the premise might be right here. The private sector is much more of a chameleon than many want to recognize, but rather than going with Hayek's BS solution of not even trying, we might to we rethink whole regulatory process by making it vastly more comprehensive from the get go).

[philly_bob]

46. Interesting summary. I haven't read Hayek in the original.

Hayek's position, in your summary point 1, seems ridiculous. When it does its job, government creates stability and security, economic infrastructure and an educated citizenry. This increases personal freedom. Are citizens more free in failed-government states like the Sudan?

[hifiguy]

30. Lots of reasons

Vietnam was the turning point. That brutal and utterly unnecessary war permanently damaged the image of the US for at least a generation. A few relatively benign years of Ford and Carter began to repair the damage to our international reputation, then addle-pated Cowboy Raygun was elected and began threatening everybody on the planet who didn't kiss the Imperial American ring. Embracing right wing dictators anywhere they could be found around the world did nothing to improve the national image.

GHWB's blandness and the fall of the Soviet bloc stemmed this deterioration somewhat, and Clinton was also relatively innocuous. But none of this unded the damage caused by Raygun's aggressive and ignorant bellicosity.

His Chimperial Highness and Darth pretty much pounded the final nails into the coffin of the reputation of the US with their "endless war for oil and for AIPAC" misadventures and Obama has done virtually nothing to undo any of the more noxious policy rationales underlying the Boosh-Cheney worldview. All he has done is put a more pleasant face on the same old crap.

Add a healthy dose of hypocrisy, greed, and placing corporate interests (the MIC, Big Oil/Agra) above actual and legitimate national interests and that explains why we are where we are now.

Imperialism and neoliberal economics have pretty much destroyed the country internally, and the same things destroyed our international standing as well.

[AnnetteJacobs]

34. What happened? Just look at what happened this morning

that'll give a clue. :puke:
Where the fuck are our priorities??

[Loki]

35. Fucking Republicans

and weak-assed Democrats.

[CrispyQ]

37. What happened? William Blum nailed it in this article:

A Brief History of U.S. Interventions:
1945 to the Present
by William Blum
Z magazine , June 1999

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

snip...

The engine of American foreign policy has been fueled not by a devotion to any kind of morality, but rather by the necessity to serve other imperatives, which can be summarized as follows:

* making the world safe for American corporations;
* enhancing the financial statements of defense contractors at home who have contributed generously to members of congress;
* preventing the rise of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model;
* extending political and economic hegemony over as wide an area as possible, as befits a "great power."

This in the name of fighting a supposed moral crusade against what cold warriors convinced themselves, and the American people, was the existence of an evil International Communist Conspiracy, which in fact never existed, evil or not.

The United States carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations in this period.
=====

Detailed listing at link.

[krabigirl]

38. The two corporate war parties have destroyed what was left of this country. Oh the media sucks too.

And most people don't care.

[Rex]

39. 2000.

And here we all thought it would be Y2K! No, it was the stolen election of 2000 that sent us spiraling into the debt and depression we find American in today. We could have survived Poppy and Rayguns many criminal fuckups in office...but I don't think we will make it after 8 years of GWB...specially not now after watching events unfold the way they have. We are fucked...just a matter of time before America implodes.

[BOG PERSON]

44. this is revisionist history

nobody ever viewed the US as protectors of the world except the crypto-fascist shitheads who we protected and put in power in the postwar period.

[QuintanarooBoy]

47. Hubris

ate