Regular readers will know that by and large, all in all, on this hand or that hand, taken in the round (oh, get on with it! Ed.) I am an ardent fan of America. Even so, just recently I have begun to worry. Of course, I have always realised that it is, or can be, a dangerous place but that applies to most countries, including this one, but if you apply your intelligence (in all senses of the word) you will be able to steer clear of danger spots. The problem is that I sense that the nature of the danger has changed. It is no longer mafiosi, or hoodlums or gun-toting hillbillies that you need to fear in the United States of America - but the government! And the problem with governments is that there is no dodging them!
Now let me be honest and admit immediately that my slight (very slight!) knowledge of current affairs in America is of very recent vintage, only since the modern internet started, really, which has allowed me to keep half an eye on some of the undercurrents swirling around that huge continental country. Thus, I am uneasily aware that what shocks and peturbs me today is perhaps simply the 'same old same old' for those who have lived their entire lives there. I am not, I think, naive and I do not take America at the face value of the worst sort of American flim-flam of which "American exceptionalism" is such a ripe example, but I do think that there is an underlying belief , or perhaps 'aspiration' is a better word, in what I can only call the fundamental decencies of democratic government. Today, I am beginning to doubt!
The examples I give to justify my fears arise from the Obama regime (I use the word deliberately!) but they are, I suspect, merely the latest manifestation of a trend towards bigger and more dangerous government that has metastasized over recent decades. Without rehearsing the multitude of details, these three particular cases indicate to me that' there is something rotten in the state of America':
'Operation Fast & Furious' was a government-run 'sting' in which guns and ammo were traded to Mexican cartels with the inevitable result that an American border guard was shot dead. So far, so normal, in that it was a typical dimwitted, government 'snafu', but the real stench of corruption arises from the fact that to date - no one has been charged with anything!
The Benghazi attack, in which four Americans were slaughtered, has been buried under several zillion tons of bureaucratic sludge despite it being increasingly clear that the administration, faced with an imminent election, lied, and lied and lied again about its probable causes. Indeed, one of the main liers has since been promoted. Not one single official, whose denial of increased security requests was a leading factor in the attack and murders, has been disciplined.
The IRS scandal, in which the the American Revenue Service deliberately targeted conservative political groups, has been buried in exactly the same sort of bureaucratic sludge as the others.
It is this last episode that strikes me as the most worrying. By politicising the IRS - and getting away with it! - the Federal Government now has a superb new weapon to use against its opponents with laser-like accuracy. Perhaps the only 'good news' to be derived from our most recent British scandal in which Mrs. Maria Miller's fingers were finally prized off her ministerial desk is precisely that - that she was forced to resign by sheer weight of public opinion for her transgression. It just doesn't happen in America and if I was an American citizen - "which thank the Lord I'm not, sir" - I would be afraid, very afraid!
