Hanging separately

Jamie Metzl of the Miami Herald writes what a lot of us have been thinking:

Aug. 8, 2008, may someday be remembered as the first day of the post-American era. Or it could be remembered as another ''Sputnik moment,'' when, as with the Soviet foray into outer space in 1957, the American people realized that the country had lost its footing and decided it was time for the United States to get its act together.

There was no mistaking the power and symbolism of the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic Games on Aug. 8. That multimedia spectacular did far more than trace China's 5,000-year history; it was a statement that China is a major civilization that demands and deserves its rightful place in the global hierarchy...

At the very same time that Bush was waving from the stands, Russia was invading Georgia, America's closest partner in the Caucasus. Russia's message to other West-leaning countries in the former Soviet world was clear: America cannot protect you...

The Beijing Olympics could be remembered as a new ''Sputnik moment'' for the United States, inspiring the country to meaningfully face the music of a changing world. But America can make it so only by recognizing the great challenges it faces and taking bold steps toward addressing them, at home and with allies abroad.

This is exactly right. China is here, Russia is back, and the U.S. is fading fast. We need to get our act together as quickly as possible.

Why haven't we done this yet? It's not like we haven't been reading headlines about China's rise and America's decline for the past 5 years.

It's because of internal political division that we have not been able to take the necessary steps to shore up our nation's strength. Specifically, the division between liberals and conservatives.

Matt Yglesias writes:

The conservative approach to development is basically to say that if we have very low taxes, no regulation, and no public services then business will be booming. Progressives say, no, that creating an environment with a public sector that’s robust enough to provide first-rate infrastructure, high-quality education, and a healthy workforce will attract more than enough business opportunities to make up for whatever negative impact is caused by higher tax rates.

He's exactly right. Have the conservatives kept pushing for these things because these things are a cure-all for any situation? No. Conservatives have kept pushing for these things because to take a pragmatic approach to the economy would mean compromising with liberals. So they blindly press on with approaches that don't address the problems we face.

The same is true of foreign policy. Republicans pushed the Iraq war, and kept pushing for it long after it became obvious that it was pointless, useless, and horribly expensive - because the Iraq War allowed them to call liberals unpatriotic.

I'm sure liberals have committed similar sins (on social issues, most likely), though conservatives have had more power and more unity, and thus more opportunity to wage no-holds-barred partisan warfare. But that's beside the point.

The point is this: Unless conservatives and liberals agree to live with each other and work with each other, our nation will continue to weaken. Metzl points to the solutions we need - increased infrastructure investment, better education, cheaper (and hopefully more effective) health care. But those things will not get done until and unless conservatives abandon their desire goal of smashing liberalism to death (and vice versa). Same old choice: Hang together or hang separately.