The Politics of Decline

Washington, D.C.—Bush and Dukakis may be chipper for the cameras, but at the policy level they are both buying into the politics of decline. And what comes next, fellow victims, is that most irresistible of forces, a consensus.

The evidence of decline, in the Paul Kennedy sense, is all about us, and I don’t mean to trivialize it. The U.S. share of gross world product is down by almost 50 per cent since the war, and that’s worrisome. Our net international borrowing as a percentage of GNP has gone straight up during the Eighties, and that isn’t good. And our educational system has been misdirected and much abused, and that is a disaster—for individuals, for communities, and for the nation as a whole. Yes, we do have a case of imperial overstretch, and the new Administration will be obliged to Sanforize our military commitments or find deep cuts in non-defense spending.

BF

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B. Freeman

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George H. W. Bush

Presidential Election

Washington, D.C.—Bush and Dukakis may be chipper for the cameras, but at the policy level they are both buying into the politics of decline. And what comes next, fellow victims, is that most irresistible of forces, a consensus.

The evidence of decline, in the Paul Kennedy sense, is all about us, and I don’t mean to trivialize it. The U.S. share of gross world product is down by almost 50 per cent since the war, and that’s worrisome. Our net international borrowing as a percentage of GNP has gone straight up during the Eighties, and that isn’t good. And our educational system has been misdirected and much abused, and that is a disaster—for individuals, for communities, and for the nation as a whole. Yes, we do have a case of imperial overstretch, and the new Administration will be obliged to Sanforize our military commitments or find deep cuts in non-defense spending.