Shutdown Spectacle: “America Is Already Politically Bankrupt” (German left press blames GOP)

Der Spiegel ^ | October 02, 2013 – 03:07 PM | Charly Wilder

[Olog-hai]

Many Germans have found it hard to understand American lawmakers’ inability to resolve their budget disagreements in time to prevent a shutdown of all nonessential government services, which went into effect at midnight on Monday night. “What Washington currently offers up is a spectacle, but one in which the spectators feel more like crying,” writes the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“Because Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, Congress and president could not agree on a stop-gap budget, hundreds of thousands of federal employees were sent on involuntary leave and many agencies were forced to shut down,” continues the editorial. …

The overwhelming consensus among the German press is that the Republicans are the most to blame for the gridlock. In a Tuesday commentary, Spiegel Online’s Gregor Peter Schmitz dubbed them the “kamikaze party.” He attributed the gridlock to America’s mercenary political culture—where directly-elected lawmakers run for re-election every two years and campaigns are privately financed—as well as to the lack of party infrastructure compared to Germany’s parliamentary model with its publicly-funded campaigns. …

[kearnyirish2]

“The main plaza in town is Karl-Marx Strasse.”

The allies should have bargained with the Soviet Union at the end of WWII, giving them western Germany in exchange for Poland (for whom Britain & France had initially gone to war). Look at the difference in perceptions between former Warsaw Pact and NATO nations, and you see how easily most of Germany got off at the end of that war (while countries like Poland were enslaved for nearly fifty years through no fault of their own). Eastern Europe knows where Obama’s rhetoric leads; western Europe has had but a taste of it (and it has left many of their economies in shambles).

[CommieCutter]

I love how the people with Kaiser and Hitler in their past think they have a say in telling us who should be our leaders.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Germans believe Americans are stupid, fat and incompetent. They believe they ought to be running the world. I had a conversation with such a German in 1980, 35 years after WWII. I said, okay, Germans ran a good part of the world in the 35 years before 1945, what was the record. Two world wars, the complete devastation of Germany and huge parts of Europe and Asia. The US ran the world for the 35 years after 1945. What was the record? Zero world wars, the growth of economic prosperity unimagined by people before, the increase in freedom and representative governmnet in the world to an extent also deemed unimaginable.

Who's stupid? Who should be running the world?

No answer was received.

[indthkr]

Socialist State opinions bump for later....

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Olog-hai. PartisanS Media Shills ping.