I have a JD, and joined. It is called love of country.

john from office
i have a college education why in the world would i join the army.

I would invite a filibuster on healthcare, allow the Republicans to blather about death panels and socialism and fill the galleries with Americans who have lost their healthcare due to loss of employment or pre-existing medical condition, business owners who are struggling to insure their workers, working people tired of their premiums increasing each year, an make them avaailable to the press. I think it would make great political theater and would prepare the country for a change in Senate rules at the start of the next session.

America is an amazing nation and only those not born here see it sometimes, especally if the natve born is from the upper westside. We will always have the advantage as long as we accept an immigrate class that loves this nation and is prepared to work hard and defend it. When was the last time a Brian Lehner joined the army, but there are plenty of Hernandezes.

Did the Roman Empire rise again? Get over it. Move on. We'll be lucky to remain a world power, with all our debt. That's just how it's got to be, no one to blame but the natural course of history and civilization.

On the filibuster....i've heard they can talk about anything they want, rather than actually defend their position. Reading a telephone directory for example.

it takes 60 votes in the senate and one vote in the supreme court to change a law

Most of these Senators are too old to stand up and talk for an hour anyway.

Public Law 62-5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Law_62-5) undemocratically holds the house to 435 members, giving small states even more power than they should have.

The filibuster rule won't change any time soon for the same reason that two-party rule won't change. Because these two parties have entrenched themselves in the Congress and have stopped caring about ideas or debate.

People have always been fearful and predicting the 'downfall' of civilization! I remember reading a story in school about a guy, on a path, who was terrorized by a quickly-approaching vehicle. He announced it the end of peace in the world. He was appalled by the speed, the noise, the dust and just the plain disregard for humanity and the human scale -- it was a horse and buggy.

Carter had one thing going for him. Vietnam was over. We still have two wars going on.

America only become a world power briefly after WW2 by an accident of history. Our general history is one of a rural backwater built on slavery. We got lucky that Europe and Japan were destroyed after WW2 and we could get rich helping them rebuild while simultaneously China and India were recovering from their own periods of instability and therefor temporarily out of the capitalist game. Not to mention most of that post-war growth was based on a housing boom building the suburbs something we tried, and failed, to replicate last decade. There will only one post-war boom in our history.

For thousands of years China was the strongest and most advanced country. For 350 years America was a agricultural backwater filled with slaves. So we got lucky for a couple decades after the war, don't get too cocky.

and PS
why don't the BOOMERS think they have to pay for their retirement. why are they allowed to pass their unpaid bills on to the rest of us. thanks to their choices i'll be at this desk until i'm 90

It's hard to see how America can rise anywhere when no politician can talk about raising taxes.

the decline seems real to me:

fear of science, no investment in education or infrastructure, credit based economies, outsourcing of many jobs to foreign or immigrant labor.
our military and paid mercenaries chase shadows.
our mullahs tell us we will pay for our sins. terrorized voters out of touch with reality. programs americans want and wont pay for. plains, mountain and southern states which can't support themselves get subsidy checks from the federal government (NYers paying for rural lifestyles, while NY sinks) cheap oil poisons our air, cheap corn poisons our bodies.

What does Mr. Fallows think about President Obama's first year so far?

How can this country change with such dysfunctional politics?