This morning I came across an article by Michael Hirsh whining about “America’s decline.” An Unnatural Disaster compresses the history of our great nation and draws simplistic conclusions.

In many articles and in book after book American “declinists” nowadays tend to portray America’s reduced stature as a largely natural phenomenon. Never mind that on the eve of the Bush presidency we were still seen as the most powerful nation in the history of the world. Decadent powers always wane in influence, and it seems we’ve just been doing a lot of waning very quickly. As other countries around the world partook of the ideas we pressed on them in the post-cold war era—free markets, democracy—they started to prosper and catch up to us. Meanwhile we grew fatter (literally) and more spoiled. It was all very organic.

While I tend to agree that this country is on the decline in many areas including morality, education and the stability of basic social systems, Hirsh provides no metrics for this purported decline. Hirsh is also tragically short-sighted and foolish in his conclusions.

In a nutshell, he blames President Bush for the “waning influence” of the United States.

That is the decline in America’s position in the world from where we were when George W. Bush inherited power on Jan. 20, 2001, to what he will bequeath to the next president eight months from now.

Mr. Hirsh conveniently overlooks our long history of interventionism that began in earnest after World War II. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton, intervened in Kosovo. We’ve been bribing and bullying to get our way for decades. George W. Bush is just continuing a well established tradition of forcing ourselves on the rest of the world. Hirsh continues, blaming the devaluation of the dollar on poor decisions by the Bush administration (which somehow includes Wall Street in Hirsh’s mind).

Now America’s economy is in the process of “de-leveraging”—shrinking in borrowing power and thereby reducing its impact around the world as foreign funds pull their investments from dollars or redirect them into euros or “baskets” of several currencies. As European and Asian financiers and economic officials have come to learn the truth about the subprime debacle, they’ve become leery about ever trusting Wall Street’s or Washington’s advice again. Yet had anyone in Washington been paying serious attention, the worst of the credit crunch—and loss of prestige—could have been avoided.

The economic downturn has little to do with George W. Bush and much more to do with a national attitude the values instant gratification over responsible spending. Ultimately, it is the apathy, slothfulness and poor value choices of individual Americans themselves that are to blame for any “American decline.”

In case you don’t pay attention to these things, Bob Barr is running for President on the Libertarian ticket. Bob Barr’s campaign site looks a hell of a lot like Ron Paul’s campaign site. I wonder if he got a discount for using the same template. After all, the design company didn’t have to start from scratch.

Generally speaking, I tend to agree with most of Barr’s positions. He is against continuing growth of the federal government and that is the single most important issue because that one issue causes all my various problems with government. If we could limit the role of the federal government to a few key things like providing for a common defense and maybe regulating interstate commerce this nation would be a better place to live, and certainly a more interesting place to live.

Neither Ron Paul or Bob Barr has a chance of winning the election. Either of the two could upset the balance though, and skew the results in favor of the Democratic contender. When the time comes to decide, it is likely I will write in Ron Paul’s name and consequences be damned. But now, at least, I have a good backup. I may still cast my symbolic vote for Bob Barr depending what happens in the next few months.

Many in the ranks of American punditry are speculating that the spoilers in this election will ensure a Democratic President gets elected. If that happens, then I say more power to the successful candidate. Both parties are destroying the value of our currency. Both parties are trying to homogenize this nation, effectively removing the ingredient that once made us the greatest place on earth to live. Both parties continue to encroach on personal freedoms by pretending that doing so will somehow benefit us all collectively. Both parties throw money at a failing education system and continue pretending that the money will fix the problems instead of looking at the root causes (social value systems) that are responsible for the mediocrity of our public education system. Neither party is serious about fixing the energy crisis. Neither party is serious about making America a better nation.

If electing a Democrat speeds up the inevitable recycling that nations go through in history, then I’m all for it. Rome is going to burn sooner or later - the writing is already on the wall. Let’s get it over with so we can start rebuilding from the ashes. Maybe we’ll have a longer cycle of enlightenment and freedom the next time around. If Bob Barr can destroy the status quo then he’s doing a good thing.

I am not sure I understand basic thinking in regards to modern economics. How is giving me an $800 one time tax credit (loaning me some of my own money) going to fix a debt/spending driven economy?

President Bush publicly confirmed for the first time that he would propose a package of emergency measures, outlining its basic principles on Friday, in an effort to restore the eroding confidence of investors and consumers. The package is expected to include more than $100 billion in one-time tax rebates for individuals and an opportunity for businesses to rapidly write off their capital investments.

As far as I am concerned everything the feds talk about is semantics unless it involves budget cuts or real reductions in federal spending. I don’t know anything about Ben Bernanke. Why should I listen to what he has to say? Someone convince me we aren’t headed for a crisis.