The Plight of America

It is a political system in crisis, reflected by a state of ideological schizophrenia, in a country where the polarization between conservatives and progressives has reached unprecedented levels. According to one analyst, America is on the verge of suffering from a nervous breakdown on the eve of midterm elections for Congress next November. The Democrats could lose their majority in the Senate and the American public in turn could elect witches, racists and extremists in order to show their frustration, anger and lost faith in a political system aligned with the financial, manufacturing and military arms industries, at the expense of the average American who is suffering from unemployment, poverty and displacement.

This is the common description used in both the liberal and conservative media to describe what is happening today in America. Political activist and journalist Arianna Huffington warns in her new book, “Third World America,” that if the American political system is not reformed in a manner that reduces the role of political contributions and powerful lobbying groups, then the United States will descend to the level of failed third world nations in a matter of a few years.

Extremism has overrun the Republican Party, which is now witnessing an internal coup led by a group of white Christians who are fanatics both religiously and politically and who are known as the tea party. A number of tea party candidates have been able to knock down candidates who are symbols of the Republican Party in the primaries and thereby have won the chance to represent the party in the midterm elections. Among these candidates is Christine O’Donnell, a Christian conservative who admits to practicing sorcery and witchcraft in her youth. Also among them is New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, who revealed his racism toward black people specifically. There are others who have shaken the foundations of the Republican Party and gathered around Sarah Palin, who is preparing herself to challenge Obama in the 2012 elections, and other religious conservatives who want to return America to the Lord and the ideals of conservatism which the United States was founded on over 200 years ago.

In contrast, the Democratic Party appears defeated as it faces the public’s anger and loss of hope in the promises for change made by President Obama. The liberals and those who voted for Obama are accusing the Obama administration of failing to bring about the changes that were central to the campaign and promised to them by the president. Obama has saved the banks and major corporations that were responsible for the huge economic downturn, while he has failed to do anything to save the average citizen who has lost his job and home and is now trying to gather the scattered pieces of his life that were destroyed by a corrupt and greedy capitalist system.

Anger, sorrow, radicalism and a distancing from reality describe the current state of affairs in America today, and it doesn’t appear that the president will be able to employ his experience, charm and charisma to save the party from bitter defeat. If things continue to go the way they are expected to go, then the Obama administration and the Democratic Party will suffer heavily come November. However, unlike past elections, the effect the tea party will have will also weaken Republican unity, as they have lost the connection to their electoral base. The election of “lunatics” to Congress will place major internal challenges in front of the United States in the coming two years.

Extremism and deviation toward the far right has been the response to the election of the first black president in the history of the United States two years ago. As for the liberals, they warn of the sudden and shocking shift in America and the effects that this severe polarization will have on the future of their nation and the world. They are begging President Obama to move quickly and remind its young base of its role, which had the largest effect in getting him elected, hoping that it may lessen the reaction against them, which is represented by the tea party movement.

Thus, on the brink of elections, America is suffering from internal suspicion, doubt, Islamophobia and fear of Obama’s agenda, which his opponents describe as leftist and socialist — in addition to the consequences of an economic crisis that has yet to end and wars that remain unresolved.

If this is the state of the most powerful and influential nation, then what can we say about the rest of the world’s nations that view America as the redeemer?