Politics of Debt

Building on a famous quote, the American political process presently is characterized by the politics of debt, in which one group of people having claims on the government treasury has conflicts with another group of people with claims of their own. The American citizens who underwrite this debt are essentially unrepresented in the process. This fact lies at the heart of discontent in the United States today. The political parties – the Republicans, who represent the subsidy-receiving major corporations, and the democrats, who essentially represent the entitlement receivers – have lost all semblance of the ideals upon which the nation was founded. Rome’s constitution was inevitably eroded by ambitious and wicked and lustful men, in whom patriotism had long died, and who saw their nation not as a colossus of freedom in the world and a light to the nations, but an arena in which they could gain prizes and eventually crown themselves.