“…A Democracy in Decline”

In my assessment of America’s ailments, I am struck by remarkable similarities to a chronically ill patient: a bewildering array of symptoms, the insidious advance of physical signs, a gradual ebbing of strength, and the evolving stages of denial, dysfunction, and decline.

This subjective assessment is supported by objective data spanning four decades. While real economic output per person has nearly doubled and corporate profits have more than tripled, median wages per worker have barely budged – to the discontent of the middle-class. While global temperatures have risen by nearly two degrees and polar ice caps have begun to melt, elected officials continue to deny the truth – to the detriment of the planet.

And while surveys show most Americans seek the middle ground about our most divisive topics – health care, abortion, and gun control – national leaders staunchly resist any form of compromise – to the dismay of the electorate. This striking disparity between what voters want and what their leaders do is pathognomonic (proof positive) of a democracy in decline.

From The Ailing Nation

America’s forty-year decline is best captured by simple metrics. How can the median wages of workers go up by just 13% while output per worker has nearly doubled and corporate profits have fully tripled? How can candidates for office publicly ignore an alarming rise in global temperatures that has already taken place: no longer speculation about the future, but an observation about the recent past? How can publicly elected leaders ignore the expressed wishes of the voters in a thriving democracy? These are our symptoms. In my world of medicine, a symptom that explicitly leads to a diagnosis is said to be pathognomonic of a disease. Our simple metrics are proof positive of a broken political process – a democracy in decline. Our charge is to identify the root cause of our nation’s malady.