Noam Chomsky: America’s Going Rogue

[marmar]

from In These Times:



America’s Going Rogue
The U.S. snubs treaties, obligations and universal principles.

BY Noam Chomsky


During the latest episode of the Washington farce that has astonished a bemused world, a Chinese commentator wrote that if the United States cannot be a responsible member of the world system, perhaps the world should become “de-Americanized”—and separate itself from the rogue state that is the reigning military power but is losing credibility in other domains.

The Washington debacle's immediate source was the sharp shift to the right among the political class. In the past, the U.S. has sometimes been described sardonically—but not inaccurately—as a one-party state: the business party, with two factions called Democrats and Republicans.

That is no longer true. The U.S. is still a one-party state, the business party. But it only has one faction: moderate Republicans, now called New Democrats (as the U.S. Congressional coalition styles itself).

There is still a Republican organization, but it long ago abandoned any pretense of being a normal parliamentary party. Conservative commentator Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution describe today's Republicans as “a radical insurgency—ideologically extreme, scornful of facts and compromise, and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition”: a serious danger to the society. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15842/chomsky_americas_going_rogue

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Katashi_itto]

3. K&R

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. It hurts worse because of the fact this is saying things have gotten worse

5 years into a liberal-Democratic presidency.

[Doctor_J]

5. democratic? yes. liberal?

[dotymed]

17. Very sad but very true, doctor_J.

That is what this piece is trying to tell us.

WE ARE A ONE PARTY NATION.

It is (for them) a party of elites that work together to keep the status quo and increase their wealth.

We are their enemy.

[L0oniX]

10. Try reading... Ralph Nader: Madder Than Ever ...on that site.

For all the bashing Ralph gets ...IMO he nails it.

[cui bono]

34. Nader's been nailing it for a long time.

He spoke about the danger of globalization so very long ago. But DU seems loathe him, sadly.

[loudsue]

6. Then why does the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution

allow their money to support republicans anymore? Why don't they deliberately come out against faux noise, and petition the supreme court to demand that legitimate news organizations can't tell lies? If it is "entertainment", as the supreme court ruled in favor of fox, then it needs to be made clear that THAT is what they are doing.

There are a lot of ways that real, true republicans can turn this thing around.

[bvar22]

30. The Kabuki Theater is necessary to maintain the illusion of choice,

..and to keep the MONEY rolling in.
Campaign, Elections, and Media Coverage are a Multi-BILLION (Trillion?) Dollar Enterprise. It must all appear to be a neck & neck horse race in a "divided nation".


What would happen to this Money Machine if the screen were pulled back,
and 99% of Americans were told that they really have no chance what-so-ever,
no matter WHO they vote for?

[L0oniX]

7. Well at least some people know there is something wrong with the Democratic party...

and it's going to get worse as more repukes flee the tea baggers and become Dinos ...not to mention the war hawks, globalists / corporatist s.

[go west young man]

8. Having trouble with the link....

Here's another page with it. http://kielarowski.net/2013/11/09/americas-going-rogue/

[JEB]

9. Absolute subservience to money has become the only acceptable morality.

We are all peons slaving for the richer class except the handful of the very wealthiest and they bow before their God, MONEY.

[L0oniX]

11. Nader interview: Thirteen years after 2000, you’re reviled among the Democratic establishment. Why?

It would happen to anybody who challenged the Democratic Party. Because when push comes to shove, the vast majority of liberals and progressives will allow a ring to be put in their nose and pulled anywhere the Democratic Party tells them. “You’ve got nowhere to go,” they say. “We’re the least of the worst.”

Yea come election time that's what you hear a lot of and yet it keeps being pushed that we can vote our way into fixing this shit. You can't vote Goldman Sachs out of office.

[adirondacker]

13. I'd like to commend you for posting Nader's point of view, because I know you'll take some heat.

There's very little to argue with. IMO, over truth and facts, but the doublespeak spinners will work effortlessly to diffuse them.

[JEB]

14. “We’re the least of the worst.”

Now there is some high ground worth fighting for....NOT.

[L0oniX]

18. Same thing as saying "the lessor of two evils" but go on.

[Major Nikon]

12. Lost me on the first paragraph

The irony that Chomsky can say these things about his own government and Chinese commentators can't seems to be lost on him.

[JEB]

16. Are we still "the least of the worst"?

Why aspire for anything better?

[Major Nikon]

20. We should always aspire to be better even if we were the best

However, China actually is a one-party state and anything but a responsible member of the world system. Anything that comes from China is pure propaganda. The newspapers over there read like a comic book. They are always pro-China and anti-American.

[JEB]

28. China has shortcoming as does the good ol' USA.

Being a citizen of the USA, I choose to address our own shortcomings first and foremost.

[dotymed]

19. You're right.

We are a Democracy. We control our legislators. They only do our bidding as we want.

David Copperfield is what? An illusionist?

BTW, are you the type of person who would record your friends telephone calls? Just wondering...

[bvar22]

32. We are a democracy?

Have you ever been corralled into a "1st Amendment Zone"?

The illusion of democracy was smashed for me in 2000 with Bush v Gore.

[ronnie624]

21. He shouldn't criticize his government, because he is free to do so?

Highly illogical.

[Major Nikon]

22. He should find better sources to quote

It's kinda like the KKK calling the ACLU racist.

[ronnie624]

23. KKK?

What?

Your posts are gibberish.

[Major Nikon]

31. Not everyone gets analogies

[Doctor_J]

26. "We're better than the Chinese Communist dictatorship",

and therefore we shouldn't criticize our president!

[awoke_in_2003]

35. When Noam spoke out like this during the Bush years...

he was applauded. Of course, we used to be pretty united against drone strikes, too.

[ronnie624]

15. "Principles are valid only if they are universal.

Reactions would be a bit different, needless to say, if Cuban Special Forces kidnapped the prominent terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in Miami, bringing him to Cuba for interrogation and trial in accordance with Cuban law."

How skillfully he bares US duplicity.

[grahamhgreen]

24. Or if they dropped a drone missile on him.

[ronnie624]

25. No doubt.

One can easily imagine the US reaction to a foreign government firing missiles into a US city, killing a dozen or so civilians.

[GoneFishin]

27. I am sure it would be no problem as long as they alleged to be aiming at an alleged terrorist.

And explained that all of the dead women and children were just accidents.

[BelgianMadCow]

36. I'm reading Chomsky's Failed States atm

and that episode figures in it. And there are several chapters dedicated to examples of the US going it alone and behaving like a rogue state. Might makes right, I guess.

[ucrdem]

29. 1973 just called and wants its column back.

[bvar22]

33. Why?

Has the definition of a representative democracy or our Constitutional limits on government changed since 1973?
I didn't get The Memo.

Please update the readers here about how the fundamentals of our nation have changed since 1973.

[cui bono]

37. Well for one thing...

boy bands wax their chests now.