(PART ONE) Politics: If you believe the EU has political leadership problems look at the US - by Stephen Goldstein

Has American public life always been dominated by Lilliputians? Have we always had more shlemiels than heroes? If not, who were some of our relatively recent larger-than-life leaders, what did they have in common, and why don't we have (m)any equal to them today? Those are questions I ask myself and that I hear other people asking — except for the part about the Lilliputians.

Of course, the answer to my first two questions is a resounding No: Greatness and American have gone together in our past. I always think of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and one incident among many in her life. In 1939, when the Daughters of the American Revolution wouldn't let the African-American singer Marian Anderson perform before an integrated audience in its Constitution Hall, Mrs. Roosevelt publicly resigned from the DAR and arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial.

True leaders always accept responsibility for their actions. As President Truman rightly said, "the buck stops here." They seem to have a centeredness that makes them choose the right thing to do, not poll-tested messages and strategies. But tragically, no First Lady today would dare do anything as principled as Eleanor Roosevelt did. Contrast Truman's stand with Bill Clinton's fiasco enacting Don't Ask Don't Tell and President Obama's gyrations overturning it. Create a federal highway system and make space exploration a top priority today? We're too poor! Today, our answer to civil rights is voter suppression.

But why have we sunk so low? First, we emerged from the Second World War as the richest and most powerful nation on earth — and boasted of it. But since we lost the Vietnam War, President Nixon resigned in disgrace, and we went through the wrenching social dislocations of the 1960's, the country has suffered from clinical depression, from which we have yet to recover. Second, money has replaced morality in politics, and would-be leaders happily sell themselves. Third, we have not been able to adjust to our changing domestic diversity and our role as one among many equals in the world. In short, we are at war with ourselves because we no longer know who we are.

Writing fiction, Jonathan Swift engineered Gulliver's escape from the Lilliputians. Our plight is real and existential, but fixable: We have met the Lilliputians, and they are us — and only we can save us from ourselves.

Read more: America is lacking a larger-than-life leader - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

(PART TWO ) Politics: If you believe the EU has political leadership problems look at the US - by Kingsley Guy

"My dueling columnist colleague Stephen L. Goldstein and I rarely agree on anything, but today we do: Real political leadership is next to non-existent in America, and the US faces a threat to its existence because of it.

Yet, democracies are based on the consent of the governed, which means all citizens bear responsibility for their nation's successes and failures. So as the New Year unfolds, perhaps Americans should take a look at the role they have played in creating the existential crisis in which the United States finds itself.

We could start by reflecting on an observation by the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured the United States during the 1830s and wrote the classic political treatise, Democracy in America.

Unlike in Europe, Tocqueville found, people in the United States tended not to look to a central government to address problems. Instead, they banded together in communities and in civic organizations to work for a better quality of life, and this impressed Tocqueville.

In contrast, we live today in a society of crony capitalism, federal business bailouts, individuals clamoring for more and more government financial assistance, and communities and states calling on the federal government to pay the salaries even for teachers and police officers. As a result, the United States has accumulated a $16 trillion national debt and $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Here's a novel New Year's resolution for individuals, businesses, cities and states: "We pledge not to ask the federal government to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves."

Read more: Guy: Instead of leaders, we elected circus clowns - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Romania: In EU, party politics unite and divide

In European Union politics, party loyalties play less of a role than they do at the national level. But affiliation with the left or right can still have an effect in Brussels - as in the current case with Romania. 

The EU Commission is keeping a critical eye on the current policies of Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, the socialist leader who wants to boot conservative President Traian Basescu from office.

The view from Brussels is that the quarrel between the country's two political camps is being conducted with rather questionable legal methods. Elmar Brok, a conservative German member of the European Parliament, has criticized Ponta's attempt as a "coup" - while Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Socialists, has rushed to Ponta's defense, complaining that the Brussels debate on Romania was being governed by "party politics."

Read more: In EU, party politics unite and divide | Europe | DW.DE | 19.07.2012

Conservatism Thrives on Low Intelligence and Poor Information - by George Monbiot

Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation. Tied up in knots of reticence and self-doubt, they will not shout stop. Doing so requires an act of interruption, of presumption, for which they no longer possess a vocabulary.

Perhaps it is in the same spirit of liberal constipation that, with the exception of Charlie Brooker, we have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence. Paradoxically it was the Daily Mail that brought it to the attention of British readers last week. It feels crude, illiberal to point out that the other side is, on average, more stupid than our own. But this, the study suggests, is not unfounded generalization but empirical fact.

For more: Conservatism Thrives on Low Intelligence and Poor Information | | AlterNet

Europe needs immigration as population rapidly ages - by RM

The European Union needs substantial, but controlled immigration if it wants to survive. It will also require active labor market policies, reform of its public finances, including changes to its tax base, pensions and healthcare systems. But foremost it needs qualified immigrants to develop a more accelerated economic growth  to overcome the challenges caused by Europe's rapidly aging population.

Economic growth in Europe has been severely affected by a fall in the working-age population since 2010, with the labor work-force estimated to slump by 48 million or 16% by 2050. If no measures are taken to promote controlled immigration, the population aged 65 or more is expected to rise by 58 million or 77% during that time frame, leaving two instead of four workers for every pensioner. 

Contrary to what populist anti-immigration politicians like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands are saying, the reality is that people should be free to move and choose their own destiny.  Governments shouldn't interfere with the right to immigrate any more than is necessary and certainly not to satisfy the "nationalists"  or "populist" demands of unhappy citizens who feel threatened by the potential competition in the job market.

Obviously their demands are understandable in times of economic hardship, when it becomes very difficult for politicians to convince people that more competition for scarce jobs will eventually make their lives better. Here again it is clear that weak labour markets are the enemy of liberal immigration policies and  the strength of populist and nationalist nonsensical rhetoric, which might sound good but has never had any record of success.

When immigrants move to affluent countries, that not only increase their own welfare, but also boosts the productive potential of the countries they move to. This eventually is good for everyone. Historically, looking at countries which have had or still have open immigration policies, one will find  that this has been a source of national strength and economic well being .

Its time for the EU to "get on with the program" and not get diverted by the populist/nationalist  myopic viewpoints.

Without functional immigration policies and stronger cooperation between member countries, the EU will eventually self-destruct as a viable political and economic world power and individual countries will once again fall under the influence of the whims of remaining super-powers. The time to act  in unity is now.

EU-Digest

Double jobs make PVV Wilders MPs among the best paid politicans in the Netherlands

Ten MPs and MEPs for the anti-Islam Wilders PVV party plan to combine their membership of parliament with membership of a provincial council, the Volkskrant reported on Friday.


This will place them among the best-paid politicians in the country, with an MP’s salary of €90,000 a year plus upwards of €10,000 from the province.

Two of the 26 PVV MPs Raymond de Roon and Richard de Mos already have double jobs because they also have seats on Almere and The Hague city council. They earn €24,000 and €30,000 a year for their council duties. De Roon is also campaigning for election to the provincial government.

For more: DutchNews.nl - Double jobs make PVV MPs among the best paid politicans in the Netherlands

USA Political Scene: Obama aides predict few Cabinet changes, more travel - by Peter Nicholas

 A major shakeup in President Obama's Cabinet won't happen in the new year, as the White House settles in for a reelection campaign and a political realignment in which Republicans control the House of Representatives, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

After a tenure marked by sluggish economic growth and historic legislative victories, Obama is under pressure from voices within the Democratic Party to upend his team for the second half of the term. Prominent Democrats have called on Obama to broaden his inner circle and bring in people better positioned to negotiate on equal terms with emboldened House and Senate Republicans.

For more: Obama aides predict few Cabinet changes, more travel - Los Angeles Times

US Politics: Obama hits GOP on campaign finance - by Abby Phillip

President Barack Obama put the spotlight on the controversial Citizens United Supreme Court decision in his weekly address Saturday, and he blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking bipartisan efforts to regulate special interest funding in political elections.

Obama said the decision allows large corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. He raised the specter of special interest spending by foreign corporations, health insurance companies and the universally vilified BP, the oil giant blamed for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.


“As part of this national conversation, Republicans have proposed better solutions to provide the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to get Americans working again,” said Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) in the Republican Weekly Address on Saturday. Djou called on Democrats to take action on $1.3 trillion in Republican-proposed spending cuts, which include proposals to cancel unspent stimulus funds — and Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout money — as well as a freeze on government pay and hiring.

For more: Obama hits GOP on campaign finance - Abby Phillip - POLITICO.com