Defining our national tragedy

....Some excerpts from a Global Post article today by Mac Deford:

"(It) turns out that the middle class in Canada is doing better than the American middle class that, for nearly a century, has been the richest in the world. A recent social progress index of 132 countries ranks the US 16th, just above Slovenia. Worse is that in basic education, we rank 39th.

"So it shouldn't be a surprise that a large majority of Americans believe the country is "on the wrong track." ... Today 14 percent think we are "generally headed in the right direction" and an incredible 78 percent don't...

"The poor showing of Congress is well known; currently it merits only a 9 percent approval rating...

"Nor is it just government institutions in which we've lost faith. Organized religion is below 50 percent. Our medical system, the Supreme Court and the public school system are below 40 percent. The criminal justice system, banks, television news, newspapers, big businesses are below 30 percent with organized labor at 20 percent. Health maintenance organizations are in the teens and then we hit rock bottom with Congress...

"A serious obstacle to any solution is certainly Congress. With 9 percent approval rating, but a 90 re-election rate, the American electorate will continue to be frustrated by its leadership long into the future.

"Meanwhile, true to form, the traditional conservative right wing of the Republican Party, as personified by Washington Post columnist George Will, neglects the economic data and blames our current problems on what he calls the "dependency on government" that Lyndon Johnson's Great Society created...

"(To) blame food stamps and Medicaid for the disappearance of the high-paying, low-education jobs that our steel plants and auto assembly lines created after World War II is to ignore globalization and falling education standards."