The Reality Of America As Viewed From Without

There was the America that you saw on TV and read about in the newspapers. This America was the strong and mighty world power. The America that always talked in grandiose terms about itself. The America that extolled the virtues of freedom and democracy and worked very hard to instill a sense of true patriotism in all its citizens.

Then there was the other America. And this was the America I knew personally. The people, just regular human beings like us Canadians. They never talked about politics or government. Most of them worshiped at the alter of the NFL and Major League Baseball.

Most of them were hard working and god fearing good neighbours and good friends.

But the older I got the more I started to see how the image that America wanted the world to buy into, and the people who made up the vast majority of the American population, were two almost completely different things.

Of course, this was way back in the day before everybody got to know everything about everybody else. And in many ways I kind of lament the coming of this information age, despite the fact that it was a great equalizer of sorts.

What it did do, however, was bring about a weird melding of the Image of America and the People of America. And I really do believe it created a great deal of confusion in a country that was running like a fairly decent Swiss watch.

That’s a line from a great old cowboy song by Guy Clark, which really talks about the downside of too much of almost anything.

And that’s how I feel about things like America today. We have 24 hour news channels that pump out everything that happens, big or small, in the world of American politics. It’s almost as prevalent here in Canada as it is in the US, and, of course, most of us have complete access to the US Networks.

This has very much had the effect of turning many people, who otherwise wouldn’t give a shit, into political creatures.

Once that happens you have a left and a right and the battles that ensue as each side tries to convince the other their cause is the most just. Blah. Blah. Blah.

We see this played out every day, and observing it, quite honestly, is a hard habit to break. Mainly because, love it or hate it, America is still the most important country in the world. What happens there matters, especially to Canadians who share a great deal of their trade with America.

But all the advent of the Information Age has really done is turn that country into a pretty nasty clusterfuck that goes back and forth between the left and the right. And the more it does, the more chaos seems to be created.

And wherever you find chaos, you invariably find opportunists who see a way to profit from it. And that’s pretty much what’s happening right now.

The trouble is that while America is in the midst of being robbed blind by these opportunists, and almost completely wrapped up in their own shit, the world is entering a new phase of existence and it is one that needs universal cooperation for us to get through it.

And believe it or not, today’s America is the monkey wrench in the gears of world progress, whereas just a few short years ago it was one of the main drivers.

Their current leader complains constantly about how the world has abused his country and he is not going to take it anymore. But instead of sitting down with the rest of the world and try to figure out ways forward together, he has pulled back and consciously chosen not to even try and get along with the rest of the world.

The effects of these decisions are just beginning to be felt in many areas of their economy. While the government boasts that unemployment is at an all time low, economists tell us that while there may be more jobs, there are more people who are having trouble surviving on the wages that these jobs pay.

The increase in well paying jobs is directly linked to the amount of deregulation that this government has done. But environmentalists tell us that this deregulation is ruining land and poisoning water systems across the country, which will eventually lead to all kinds of health problems for the American people that they didn’t have before de-regulation.

And so a lot of us observers just sit at our computers and shake our heads wondering when the moment of truth for America will actually arrive. This is defined as the period when the things like poverty, crime, and lack of opportunity all reach critical mass, and the economy starts to turn down, bigly.

And who gets to shoulder the burden of all this critical mass failure?

You guessed it, the people.

The American people, who are basically good people, have always been the driver of change in their country. And now their ability to do the right thing is not just important to their own continued existence, but also to that of the rest of the world.

I’ve been kicking at Too Much America for too long. I have grown weary and my foot is sore. So please do me a favour and use this upcoming election to get your country back into the world.

Everybody knows it’s not the people, but the opportunists, that have created this mess. And I truly believe the people can fix it. Just as long as they can put aside their political bickering and do the right thing for their country.

They can do this by voting for the people who actually have a plan that isn’t all about giving more money to the rich and feeding big time on the pork barrel. If they can do that they will see that there are a lot of really good people who can lead their country back to its rightful place in the world.

You can sit back and laugh at all of this and call me a pussy liberal. But the fact of the matter is that America, at least in the modern era, has always been a much happier and more productive country with a liberal government. You know, one that is by the people and for the people.

Very unlike what you have right now. Which is all about one person and his personal agenda.

jim out