Government of the People, by the Bankers and For the Investors

"We recognize that the turmoil in the financial markets is affecting all our citizens, All of us recognize this is a serious global crisis that requires a serious global response for the good of our people." President George W. Bush

The end of U.S. national sovereignty actually happened a long time ago. Back in 1949, when the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb, U.S. sovereignty was instantly reigned in. Never again could the U.S. act unilaterally in projecting its power without considering the global consequences. Wars, even small, regional wars in places that nobody in the U.S. had ever heard of (like Viet Nam), risked the end of the human race. 

For awhile, after the Soviet Union collapsed in a heap of financial ruin, the U.S. sat atop the global mountain, the winner of a half century battle of the Titans. What we didn't notice in those heady post-Cold War days was that we had received severe internal injuries and were bleeding from the ears. We were deeply in debt, our economy was shifting from manufacturing things to manufacturing money and all of our new found wealth and power were simply being loaned to us by other countries. Once they decided that they would like to be paid back, in the form of a standard of living that might reasonably approximate ours, the sham of our power was revealed. The real power lay, not in any government, but in the non-governmental corporations who moved resouces around where they could bring the greatest return. The world was flattening, and we weren't the King of the Hill any longer. Because there was no hill.

So when George Bush declared this morning that the U.S. would be part of a global response to the disintegration of unregulated free markets, he was only acknowledging what had already happened. No single government could respond to the market crisis with any noticeable effect. 

It turns out that the conspiracy theorists and religious fundamentalists who feared the black helicopters of the United Nations had the concept right, but the boogeyman wrong. The U.N. was never a threat to our national sovereignty. Greed was, and along with it, a distrust that government could really solve social problems. We lost the right to lead because we stopped believing that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. 

Government of the people, by the bankers and for the investors is the new vision, its flag emblazoned with a Lexus, an olive tree, and a pair of golden arches. And you and I are not registered to vote.