Rendering unto Caesar: What would you do differently?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It has been said that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We need no better example of this proposition than the decline and fall of the current President of the United States. He offended Republicans by trying in vain to correct the abuses of their beloved idol. He offended Democrats by his soggy stand on Guantanamo and health care. He offended the Left by turning up the heat on the Taliban and by assassinating a former pawn without due process. Now he tries in vain to redeem himself by supporting gay marriage.

There is a reason why a former community organizer makes a sorry pit bull for the Old Dominions. A less ambitious organizer would not toy with the imperial orb. It is an office to be shunned rather than pursued. What kind of personality would desire the role of Commander in Chief of Earth's deadliest killing machine? Would any reformer succeed once put in charge of the Beast?

The Brits handed off their golden ball to Washington in the middle of the last century. America would have been better off not receiving it. The object is a curse on the body politic. In the wisdom tradition it is a child's toy. America is the naive child of Mother England. She has reached rock bottom and has no place left to turn. She should drop the ball and get on with the task of growing out of her immaturity.

Consider yourself in the place where Obama now sits. What would you do if you wore his shoes? Would you take them off, or would you find a way to drop the cursed ball?

Comments

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

If he did, wouldn't that make him a Quitter? An abdicated president = Sarah Palin on steroids. Not a nice sight, and a page in your history books that you'd want to skip. ;)

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

He might as well complete the trifecta... :)

Not necessarily.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

He could drop the ball without appearing to "quit." It could all be done under the rubric of an international security restructuring that would blind-side reactionaries.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

I would make meus_ovatio Secrtary of Defense -- and invade Liechtenstein.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

There's more money in Monaco.

Liechtenstein!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You beery swine!

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

You can't trust me, I have aspirations.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I would rename myself Caesar and say "Render unto me, bitches!"

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually I would say "Now we have witnessed the birth....of...the Planet...of the APES!! And I now dub myself Grodd! Kneel before Grodd, son of Malcolm!"

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'd nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Empires start like that. First they just wanna do some trade. Then they naturally want to establish some trade outposts. Then some savage guys start threatening those outposts, so you need troops to protect them. Then you figure out that won't do the job, you have to actively control or at least influence the interior of the adjacent territories so you could prevent more massive assaults on your precious outposts. Then you see some rival blocs appearing, and you need to build a bloc of your own to counter them. Then you start some proxy wars between the lesser members of the rivaling blocs to either protect your acquisitions or gain more (because a good business is the growing business). Meanwhile there are other guys hungry to get a piece of the pie and they're pushing with elbows and fists to get on the table, so you need more massive trade alliances on your side to stand against theirs, and still more troops to support all of that and to make yourself look heavy and significant. But you have to pay for all that, so you need to tax your people more. But they're not happy and start to feel angry. So you need more funding for surveillance, propaganda, and a better controlled state apparatus. But the evil guys start to see some cracks in your defenses and they decide to test them with a few attacks on your most vulnerable spots. So you need even more troops, kicking those bad guys' butts to make your peeps feel more secure and significant, you need more cops for more security, more surveillance, more propaganda so your people don't freak out and cause chaos, and you possibly have to start a few wars abroad where you're directly involved, to vent off some of the pressure away from your shores and distract some of the attention away from the most inconvenient fact - that in the process of all this, you've lost yourself and you've become a juggernaut, a monster who's become so hungry that it's already eating from its own liver and has lost its direction. Nothing remains to remind of the modest, humble tradesman you once were and who just wanted to do some nice trade.

Then it all crumbles down in a heartbeat, you are laid on your back licking your wounds, remembering with melancholia about the golden times of old, and watching how someone else is taking the baton and going down the same road. But you don't care any more, and you secretly giggle under your breath, because you know what awaits them. The British are in that position now.

It's a natural cycle. There's nothing you can do about it, just enjoy it while it lasts. In a sense, there MUST be someone to take that baton.

/ Cool story bro, and all that. Now I need another beer...

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Except Spain. They were more of the convert the natives type.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

This is a sad story. I think I'm gonna cry.

Nice overview.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

For some reason it reminds me of Hegel.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That might be true for the European Empires, but the US one evolved rather more haphazardly than that and in the fashion of the Roman Republic's is Newer Than People Think. Unfortunately like the Roman Republic the USA's Empire is the biggest threat to its surviving institutions. The USA started building modern military power in a civil war, had a colonial empire it did not rule all that well and rose to hegemony because the USSR won a Pyrrhic victory over the Nazis that mostly benefited the USA.

That's not a very solid foundation for empire, unfortunately Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, who were best positioned to stop the disaster dominoes saw them as successful ones instead.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I would take them off and put on my own shoes.

Judicious.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Dropping the ball might have some severe unintended consequences for you personally, but it would be the right thing to do for the nation.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

Say you're going to close Guantanamo - make those who want it closed happy.
Don't actually do it - make those who don't want it closed happy.

Say you're going to end the war(s) - make those who want them ended happy.
Don't actually do it - make those who want them continued happy.

Say you support gay marriage - make those for gay marriage happy.
Don't actually do it - make those against it happy.

I'm not a fan, but you won't catch me questioning his skills as a politician.

If I were in his shoes, I'd keep doing what I was doing - Fix the problems I have the power to fix, come up with strong short term solutions to make it appear I've fixed the others, try not to say/do anything extremely stupid in the next 16 months.

And Congress?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

How would you tackle the budget impass?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

make those who don't want it closed happy
Yeah but they'd still be like "Haha, but he's not keeping his word, SEE!? Is that the kind of president YOU want? Vote for us!"

Same for the rest.

:)

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Nice post.

Actually we dropped the ball in 1914. We just didn't notice until WWII. But we were broke, and couldn't do the job any more. The Dominions, all of them, needed independence and we were reduced to a some small islands on the edge of Europe. [Sobs into hankie.]

America wanted the job. And we spoke pretty much the same language: and we didn't really fancy the Soviets becoming top-nation now, did we? And not the naive offspring, merely the best candidate for the job. I mean, imagine if the free world had been led by France and Britain? Ouch, and I like the French.

But be that as it may, your post is pretty damn good, and a nice perspective. As for Obama, well it's down to the economy, as we all know: and if the Republicans do something stupid for which they can be blamed, that and Obama managing to get Bin Laden, will kill off any chance of a Republican POTUS at the next election. But dammit, a week's a long time in politics, and what do I know? Excepting, if he gets a second term, expect it to be good for America, and the beginning of a long road to recovery.

Of course, it's China's turn next, and China is a bit more foreign to us than we have been to each other. We must hope that China's values are moderately in line with our collective agreements: but the US is a house divided at the moment, which is often fatal.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I suspect that a president who gets a second term tends to be more resolute in decision making and is less prone to pandering to various interests, compromising for its own sake and all in all, looking as weak and soft as Obama is now. After all, if he gets what he wants (i.e. another 4 years in office), it'll be his last, so he won't have to worry about being liked (re-elected), so he'd do things his way. A thing probably many wanted to see him doing, but which he didn't. In any case, if Obama gets a 2nd term it'll be very different from his 1st one, and he'll definitely do a far more convincing job.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Blame for Guantanamo can be placed right back on Congress because it was their rare display of bipartisanship that ensured that those prisoners couldn't be housed or paid for anywhere else. A larger question would be why Congress finds it okay to perpetually imprison people without charges and continue the legalistic games of the W Administration in doing so. Due Process anyone?

America needs...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... no due process. After all, Justice is on her side.

aaarrrggghhh.......

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

How many times, and to how many people do I have to say it's "power TENDS to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Re: aaarrrggghhh.......

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Good point. And the love of money is the root of all many evils.

This just in!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Jon Stewart has some interesting observation on imperial leadership towards the end of this hilarious segment (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-20-2011/accountability-in-the-u-k---david-cameron-kills-it).

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Congrats, you've got this one on Recommended.

Ave Caesar!