I read an article in Vanity Fair recently about the state of the US. It talked about how the Tea Party (and the broader Republican Party in general) has now made tax increase somehow un-American. It goes on to argue that the founding fathers actually considered the power of taxation the backbone of a strong federal government, allowing them better credit terms when they raised money to fight wars and assert "American Values".
I agree that somehow the US government has lost its way, seduced by this myth of the superiority of the American worker, the myth of the "American Dream" and the myth of solving problems with force.
American power is on the decline because the American people refuse to take responsibility for their financial misconduct, and now the only tool left in their collective arsenal (taxation) is being systematically dismantled.
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