Leftovers from a rough week: Are we reaching a tipping point?

The world is ending! We’re back! The end is nigh! Hallelujah, we’re saved! Pawlenty! Bachman! Perry! Oh my God, maybe the end really is nigh! No, Ryan Mallett and Tim Tebow looked good and the heat wave in DC has broken, maybe a better autumn is ahead.

Suffice it to say, it’s been a rough week. And amid the wreckage and rivers of bile, adrenaline, and tears that have flowed this week, a few stories have slipped through the cracks, a few perfectly bloggable topics have gone uncommented upon. And it’s Friday and we can’t let the week go by without offering a few quick takes on at least four of those bits and pieces:

• China’s first aircraft carrier set off in the foggy waters around Dalian. This naturally led America’s China-phobes to drop their crocheting and totter out of their rocking chairs howling. But on any level the story should not be too worrisome. First, it underscores just how far China lags behind the United States militarily. Even with China’s refurbishment of the Ukrainian carrier that went to see this week, they are years away from having an operative carrier battle group, decades away from having anything like America’s 11 carrier-group global capabilities, and frankly, they lag behind a host of other players in this category, including, to name a few, Thailand, Brazil, India, Spain, and Italy. Next, China, as a major power, certainly has every right to such capabilities and frankly, the world is better off when a balance among the capabilities of major powers ensures stability. Finally, while it is possible China may some day emerge as a formidable adversary of the U.S., most of their major problems are at home and will consume them for the foreseeable future. (And can any country be that worrisome that produces anything like the YouTube "Dancing Carrots" sensation?)
• For all the talk of this being Barack Obama’s worst week, David Cameron has certainly given him a run for his money. Cameron’s response to the riots in Britain has gone from being rhetorically over-the-top to being politically tone deaf to flirting with authoritarianism. What is it about the right wing, those supposed champions of "small government" that when the going gets rough or their "values" are threatened, they become the champions of much bigger, more intrusive government, constitutional principles be damned? Cameron’s week included the latest illustration of this phenomenon with his suggestion that Britain consider curtailing social media at times of crisis because it can be used to stir up crowds. What could possibly violate fundamental principles of free speech, free association and free press more? Does anyone else see the ugly paradox in the fact that the right would have big businesses unregulated or self-regulating even to the point that they wreak havoc to the lives of millions but that the moment a crowd of the angry, disenfranchised poor take to the streets, they are willing to discuss suspending their inalienable rights?
• Speaking of public demonstrations, whose do you think will ultimately serve as a better harbinger of the public unrest that is certain to come to the United States if our economic trajectory and the growing divide between haves and have-nots goes unchecked? Will it be like the British displays of fury from disenfranchised masses who attacked those they perceived as rich just to demonstrate that they could, that they had some small power over them? Or will it be like the Israeli demonstrations about the cost-of-living in that society and the growing gap between rich and poor there? Or will it be like the Greek demonstrations that were about popular anger that the people of that country were being squeezed in order to pay off German and French bankers? Will it echo demonstrations seen recently from students in Britain and France complaining about how austerity is presenting them with a far different, tougher deal than their parents faced? The answer, of course, is all of the above. Frankly, with American families of color living on a fraction of what white families do, with people’s retirement visions exploding before their eyes, with public programs on the chopping block while tax breaks for the rich are not, with inequality growing, the great miracle of the United States today is that our cities are not being torched right now.
• The entry of Rick Perry into the Republican race may fill political junkies with excitement. Vacuous politibots with big hair don’t do that for me, personally, but that’s what makes horse races. That this is a gun-brandishing populist who thought it appropriate to float the prospect of Texan secession from the United States shouldn’t surprise any of us and frankly, given some of his opposition on the Republican primary dance card, doesn’t even put him in the lower tier of candidates in terms of reasonable policies. Indeed, the track record of Texas recently gives him a right to a place in the debate even if that record has some glaring problems associated with the bottom tiers of the population, education, and related issues. Where Perry crosses the line however, is in the degree to which he believes it is appropriate to make his religious views a central element of his campaign. As Americans we have a responsibility to one another to defend the right of all to worship or not as they please. Consequently, everyone is entitled to their views…in private. But when Christianity becomes a political platform plank it is directly contradictory to the principles on which the country was founded. Indeed, our commitment to be tolerant of the beliefs of all demands that we be intolerant of those who deliberately or inadvertently raise one set of beliefs up above others. Since Jimmy Carter religion has played too big a role in American politics…but we may be nearing a dangerous tipping point.