America conserved

Should Mitt Romney lose the election in November, he and his followers shouldn’t worry. If Obama wins, we shall endure and conserve. Due to a complex unsystematic disparate array of checks and balances, and the debt that goes with them, America cannot change and therefore sits rather still consuming and comfortably conserved.

Appointed and elected government leaders, despite deep treasure chests and well-appointed offices, cannot muster support to affect change. Plenty of good ideas. Deep Beltway thinkers, authors who expound in journals like Foreign Affairs, worry that we can no longer be great again due to this diffusion of power. Great? Again?

America serves the world as the Great Consumer. America maintains attention with an impressive nuclear weapons arsenal, second to none. We’re great now. I’m not sure why the likes of Thomas Friedman worry so much.

America consumes vast quantities to conserve; paradoxical in that we may wish to conserve resources but we cannot bring ourselves to diet. Consumption feeds our present comfortable state. And who’s to tell us otherwise? Who has the power to turn the spigot clockwise, even a bit? No one.

Critics characterize this lack of action with the word “deadlock”. I see it as the new conservatism. It doesn’t matter to which party you belong, your news station choice, your religion, your sticky-noted party tag as liberal, conservative, libertarian. You may not like conservatives, but it’s time to admit that we’re conserving “this American life”. Those aching for change intimate that our Constitution needs a new convention and a re-write. But that cannot happen right now for many reasons.

Our greatest obstacle to change is this need we have to consume. It’s what makes us great on many peoples “great scale”. Our nuclear arsenal ensures we can enjoy the banquet.