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In his compelling new book, The Limits of Power, Andrew Bacevich delivers a stinging rebuke writing that there “is a yawning disparity between what Americans expect, and what they’re willing or able to pay.” But the indictment goes further still. The price for the things we all take for granted is worthwhile so long as someone else is paying the bill.

We want cheap consumer goods. The price: shuttered factories and broken dreams.

We want cheap electricity. The price: strip mining, mountains laid bear, forests and streams buried, destroyed communities, and lingering sickness.

We want cheap gas and to preserve our “way of life”. The price: entanglements with hostile nations, saber rattling and war, and the blood of our sons and daughters.

We want unregulated, cheap credit. The price: financial meltdowns, government bailouts, market instabilities, and escalating home foreclosures.

We want low taxes. The price: uneven education, crumbling infrastructure, over forty million Americans without health insurance, crushing debt, and a dangerous dependence on foreign creditors.

We want security. The price: an imperial presidency, a shadow government, and a tattered Constitution.

We want to believe that America is exceptional and preeminent in all things: The price: frayed alliances, boiling resentment, and loss of moral standing among nations.

I could go on but you get the idea.

“The pursuit of freedom, as defined in an age of consumerism, has induced a condition of dependence on imported goods, on imported oil, and on credit. The chief desire of the American people,” Bacewich writes, “is that nothing should disrupt their access to these goods, that oil, and that credit. The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part through the distribution of largesse here at home, and in part through the pursuit of imperial ambitions abroad.” Bacewich argues rather forcibly that our thirst for cheap consumer goods, cheap gas, and an “unending line of credit” drives US foreign policy. Our “refusal to balance the books” causes us to rely heavily on the projection of American military might. Who pays the price for this dysfunction? It is our troops and their families.

Bacewich indicates we have transitioned from an “empire of production” to an “empire of consumption”; phrases coined by noted historian Charles Maier. All of this debt and our dependence on foreign oil means we “are no longer masters of our fate”.

We have opted for a false set of freedoms – materialism, self-indulgence, and collective recklessness.

So what’s the answer? It’s time for all of us to do a little self-reflection, determine what’s really important, and return to the fundamental ideas upon which our democracy rests – empathy, responsibility, and aspiration.

In the words of George Lakoff, “Responsibility is taken not just as personal responsibility but also social and community responsibility–action, not just thoughts and feelings… And aspiration looks to making things better (as defined by empathy) via imagination on the one hand and pragmatism, a sense of what works, on the other.”

The fundamental values of protection (freedom from harm) and empowerment (freedom to fulfill your dreams) define the role of government. Protection takes many forms: military and police protection, consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, safety nets, health care, disaster protection, and protections from the government itself. Empowerment is not just about “unleashing American ingenuity”. It’s also about building and maintaining infrastructure: roads and transportation systems, communication systems, scientific laboratories, public buildings, public education, parks, upholding the banking system, regulating the stock market, and maintaining a system of laws that are adjudicated through our courts.

We must confront our problems in serious ways rather than passing them off to future generations and squandering America’s promise. But before we do that, we must recognize that government is not the enemy. It is the covenant that we hold with each other. It is a sacred trust purchased in blood. It belongs to the People – the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the lucky and the luckless.

We must also come to an agreement about what government can or should do and what it can’t or shouldn’t do. I know this is easier said then done, but the squabbling must end. While China invests in 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation trains we can’t agree on an extension of a light rail to a major airport (connecting downtown LA with a major IE hub).

America is at a crossroads. We can choose decline or we can choose rebirth. The choice is ours.

We can no longer hide behind slogans, pandering, gimmickry, or tiresome talking points. America faces a host of serious, festering challenges, both at home and abroad. (The current State budget impasse is only one example.) If we do not address the “unpaid balance” it will be our undoing.

Andrew Bacewich’s book begins with an admonition from the Book of Second Kings and I will end with it. “Set thine house in order”.

Copyright © 2008 Frank Schiavone