With their growing wealth Asians compete with the developed world for human and material resources. Meanwhile, our behavior as the sole surviving superpower, bumbling the war in Iraq and exporting a mountain of bad debts that threaten world economies, demonstrates that we are incapable of leading the free world. Politicians can’t reverse historical trends, but they do have different ideas about shaping our future.

The Republicans propose that we continue developing our means of projecting power in the world. They use a belligerent kick-butt mentality in domestic and international relations, one that strikes a sympathetic response in lots of us. It is this attitude that led to our misadventure in Iraq and that wishes to strengthen the military including modernizing the tanker fleet that refuels our strategic bombers. The Democrats (Republican-lites) advocate a more accommodating posture: the use of “soft power” in foreign affairs and a more equitable distribution of burdens at home without changing the economic system that has brought us to our present predicament. Both parties promise more jobs, particularly those in a “knowledge society” while even high-tech jobs are being outsourced. It is silly to think that we are uniquely qualified to be a “knowledge society” in a world where talent and technology are widely shared! One observer predicts 20 years of shrinkage in our standard of living. Republicans are doing everything they can to protect their loyalists from having to share in such a decline.

Do you want a government that will squander our remaining resources trying to “stay the course” or one that will try to hold our society together as we adjust to our changing fortunes?

John E. Gibson

Blooming Prairie