Dennis Perrin says the changes happening across the world may happen here too in the form of an American Spring. Â The world is changing and morphing fast. The US, as usual, doesn’t get it and arrograntly assumes the world must be in our image and follow our dictates. Good luck with that.
I’m not blind to the shifts now occurring. The Arab world is shedding despotic skin, but for what? For whom? When the US claims something is “democratic,” look for the sniper in the room. He’s there. He always is.
Bizarrely, countries like Syria, when they finally overthrow the thug Assad, may not be feeling charitable towards us, just because we backed Assad for decades. Why did we do that?
Less touted is Latin America’s steady extraction from US influence. While not as dramatic as the Arab Summer — though no less violent — Latin America moves in a more independent direction. US power is waning.
This is good. It may also prove dangerous. We are renowned sore losers. Heavily-armed. Favored by God. Simple lethal math.
The US belief is its own special exceptionalism is tedious, threadbare, and becoming laughable.
Resistance from within grows, emerging from the seeds planted by Occupy. That movement has been mocked and mourned, but it had an effect. The state crushed what it could. Yet these weren’t fatal blows.
Mainstream liberals fear that Occupy’s example might hurt Obama’s re-election. Pundits like Harold Meyerson and Sean Wilentz defensively dismiss radical critiques of Their President. I like it that they’re scared, but they needn’t be. Not yet, anyway.
Liberals apparently are a-ok with drone killings and more wars as long as they are ordered by Democrats.
An American Spring at the start of Obama’s second term? As Obama’s predecessor and Terror War influence put it, bring it on. The mission is far from accomplished.