Losers 110616

It is still to early to predict the next president of the United States but it easy to forecast the losers of the current election.

With the possible exception of the 4000 or so sycophants the new president gets to appoint, the whole world is a loser in this election.  With all the venom left in the air by campaign 16 it may be time replace the Stars and Stripes with the old colonial rattlesnake flag.  The new president's major task is to attempt to heal the county and present a united country to the world. Failure to heal the divisions of the country effects the country's soft power.

Soft power comes with the world's respect of just who are the United States.  After the bone breaking of campaigning of 15/16 it is obvious that the United States is not the model for democratic reform, or even a democratic process.  The candidates ran outside their party and didn't pay any attention to a platform of any kind.  The campaign hung on far to long, Conservative estimates are 18 months but reality is that at least one candidate began campaigning four years before the election.

Soft power has been eroding for years as the United States forcefully twisted arms and sent in troops to obtain the unobtainable.  Often the objectives of intervention were not defined with the troops left to shoot them all.  A philosophy they brought home to the streets of hometown America.  The United States today is not your fathers' country and there is no point in trying to return to the "good old days" which weren't really all that good.

The victor of campaign 16 must start from where the county is now. It has been a long time coming as Woodrow Wilson squandered America's soft power at Versailles,  FDR constructed the UN as the forum for American soft power but his successors embraced hard intervention.

The new president is faced with two challenges: bring the country back from the precipice and to rebuild the countries' influence in the world.  Failure at home may lead to a break up of the United States and another Civil War with states succession following the federal government euphoric model for the break up in other countries.  The world will applaud the break up of the United States, Canada and Mexico will reach out to former lands.  Foreign countries will be quick to support breakaway states following shortsighted policies of the federal government. 

Healing the country is only the first step in regaining international standing.  The country must not walk away from the world but lead rather than continue its attempts to force that world into a proven flawed form of government.

The country needs a vision for the future not more power politics that only serves indivual interest.   The people need to be led to a better nation not driven by sound bites and demography.

Where do you want to be in 10, 20 years or make losers of your grand kids in the 22d century?