U.S. Losing Global Leadership – OpEd

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By Sergey Duz

Experts all over the world are making guesses about who will become the next US president as both Democrat Obama and Republican Romney have almost equal chances to win. What is especially important about it is that the winner will get the right to directly or indirectly affect most global processes and will certainly use such a privilege.

It is difficult to argue that despite all its disadvantages the U.S. is the planet’s most powerful country. Many, however, see signs of an upcoming decline. The U.S. can no longer remain the world’s leader although it is not quite aware of this. This explains what can be peculiar about foreign policy challenges faced by any U.S. president brought up in the spirit of American exceptionalism. This cult goes back to the early days of the U.S. and has been an integral part of national self-identification. There were lots of objective and subjective premises that are researched by historians and psychiatrists. “We are more interested in the mere fact of the American complex of somebody else’s inferiority and the messiah mania resulting from it”, says Sergei Mikheev, director general for the Centre of Political Technology.

United States
United States

“America has its permanent foreign policy interests. It resorts to all possible means to reach its goals. The means usually just vary depending on the situation, the territory, the given historical context from moderate pressure and support to direct military campaigns. In this sense, there is no difference between Obama and Romney. Their debates on who should be viewed as America’s No.1 enemy should be looked at the prism of their election campaigns. Both Obama and Romney, as well as most of the country’s leading politicians share the idea of Pax Americana, and only their interpretations of the term can vary.”

Actually, the idea is about the so-called ‘export of democracy’ which the U.S. views as a program to spread the rules and standards established in the American society, often ignoring fundamental historical and cultural circumstances that are in the way.

Meanwhile, experts who have monitored the course of the presidential campaign, do not rule out that a rare case of political collision could emerge to undermine the U.S. image worldwide. The presidential election in the United States is an indirect election, which means that the citizens vote for 538 representatives of political parties known as electors who cast votes on their behalf. In order to win, a presidential candidate must get at least 270 electoral votes. Currently, Obama and Romney are running neck and neck and each of them has chances to get 269 votes. If a candidate fails to get the majority of the vote, Congress elects the President and the Senate elects Vice-President under the terms of the 12 Amendment. As of today, Republicans hold the majority in parliament who will vote for Romney if needed. Still, Democrats are in control of the Senate, and they will elect Joe Biden, the current Vice-President of the U.S., who seeks another term in office.

Such a scenario will not just deepen the political gap in the American society but will cast doubt over the legitimacy of the new head of state. America is facing a blow which comes from the country’s political elite that is reluctant to admit that the U.S. mechanisms of democracy are no longer effective and are outdated.

VOR

VOR, or the Voice of Russia, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik.

4 thoughts on “U.S. Losing Global Leadership – OpEd

  • November 2, 2012 at 1:06 pm
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    The US Constitution itself is outdated too. True,it guarantees certain broad freedoms, e.g., freedom of speech and of religion, and certain broad rights, e.g., the right to an impartial trial, and the right of all citizens to equal protection of the laws. But after 9/11 America was abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights in both directions – home front and world affairs. Legislation in place has made the president’s right to detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorists, not to mention drones killing innocent civilians, including children and women.

    Second Amendment to the US Constitution represents anachronism, par excellence. Namely, what feared many early Americans simply doesn’t correspond with present-day America …

    Reply
  • November 2, 2012 at 1:24 pm
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    To the Voc article I’d offer any observation on any form of government coming from a country that spent most of a century gulaging the world has little credible value. With that said his point regarding our slide is observable. The more we’ve drifted from our Constitution into the Progressive Morass the further we slide.

    On the response regarding the Second Amendment one need look no further that the nations operating under the “rule” of an all powerful government to see that early on those governments did away with the right of an individual to own a firearm. Unarmed is more easily controlled. What early Americans feared is uncontrolled government which is what all nations seem to be heading towards.

    Kind regards,

    Reply
  • November 2, 2012 at 5:25 pm
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    People thousands of years ago recognized a different method for governing where Women and children were the foundation of a cannon and measure.The uS Constitution did also prior to it being actually given due process in 1791 adding the 10 protective clauses called a bill of rights that are today abrogated to the point of being of no use.
    That causes a state of moral turpitude where the legislatures, etc. have flagrantly disregarded moral standards required by every human being.
    The physics of employing a currency or token coin that, for all truthful purposes is the same type currency used during the civil war by the southern states.
    Counterfeit! That has empowered the uS another way where uS polices are not necessarily recognized but the use of the world’s currency’s with starve you to death…or cause someone to shoot you because to are a good human being.
    The Democrats and Republicans have employed this type method for years…especially against the religious people of the united States when they try to get more guarantees of religious freedom.
    But they all made money…honestly … lots of money.

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  • November 3, 2012 at 11:49 am
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    All rules, regulations, bills, laws, papers, constitutions, amendments, ideologies, religions
    etc are meant to appease the common people by a few top guns to rule them with explicit motive. The motive lies in exploitation depending upon the circumstances and situations.

    The democratic secular setup advocated by the Western powers may have been designed as an egalitarian system but nothing remain as pristine as it was initially evolved. This leads to confusions and chaos.

    Democracy or secularism has not been very successful for the Western countries either but they want to impose it (their brand) on the rest of the world; not that suits them but that which suits the US/Allies irrespectively. Reasons lie behind direct interference by these powerful global societies to facilitate their exploitation. Hence Indian democracy and its constitution has come under criticism lately as the awareness grows more and more.

    Thus the western module of mosaic democracy will
    be recast in the coming years, time will unfold.

    Reply

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