America is an Empire in Decline

Comedian and Daily Show correspondent John Oliver is British. He knows a thing or two about empires in decline. There was a time when the 'sun never set on the British Empire.'

The Brits began losing ground after WWI, losing a whole generation in the trenches of Flanders. Another British comedian, Rowan Atkinson, captured the futility and stupidity of WWI in his Black Adder TV series.

What was left of the British Empire was largely dismantled after WWII, most notably when India gained independence. The way Oliver put it before an audience in Montclair, New Jersey this month was the last time the British had guns they took over 2/3 of the world.

"We don't have guns now," Oliver deadpanned. "We're on timeout."

Fifty years from now, Oliver predicted, Americans will be on Chinese TV, voicing lizards talking about cheap car insurance.

Lewis Black, an American comedian, points out that many of the people claiming America is the greatest country on earth have never been to another country. America is not even in the Top Ten anymore in areas pertaining to quality of life. As Casey Stengel said, you can look it up.

As we get close to going through the motions of democracy next week, where one group of idiots will be replaced by another group of idiots, let's pause and reflect.

Will the Tea Party activists and newly minted Republican majority make us a better, stronger country?

Or will the same stuff happen that happened in 1994? Bomb thrower Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House and was exposed for being a lousy leader and even worse human being. Conservative crusader Rush Limbaugh was exposed as being a mere mouthpiece for the Republican party and a blowhard. Term limits, a key part of the Contract for America in 1994, where did that end up?

It is convenient that each party can blame the obstructionism of the other party for not doing what they promised the American voters. This will continue, stay tuned. The political system as it currently operates in America does not hold its leaders accountable.

The foot soldiers, the elected officials, the idiots, these will change every four or six years to give us the illusion that change is taking place. The illusions of hope and fear will be used to motivate first one side, then the other.

America is an empire in decline largely because democracy has become a joke. People who make their living telling jokes have been pointing this out to us for years. Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and Lewis Black to name a few.

There was once something beautiful about this country. It died in 1968. It died when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. It died when Robert F. Kennedy was killed. It died when the forces of Law and Order clubbed demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

I'm tired of Ivy League liberals telling me I don't know anything. They start out by saying "Look ..." and then proceed to tell us why they're right and we're wrong.

I'm tired of conservatives and their bumper sticker slogans, thinking they are better than other people because they are white, straight or pious.

Regardless of who wins next Tuesday, America will still be involved in quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan. The infrastructure of this country will continue to decline. Higher education will continue to be more expensive and secondary education will continue to decline.

The wealth of the working class will continue to decline. Health and retirement benefits will continue to be taken away. More and more people will lose their homes.

American democracy is a joke, and the joke is on us. As George Carlin put it, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."