U.S. is not just a corrupt and undemocratic society but is also in political crisis.

I have argued on this blog that the US system is in crisis.  It is undeniable that it is in economic crisis. It is also undeniable that it is in military crisis as it is bogged down in its wars and with increased opposition to these wars at home, and as opposition to its military bases in almost 200 countries gains strength and as countries such as China gain strength and as the political and military crisis in the middle east and central asia worsens.  But I have also argued that it is in political crisis. By this I mean that its political system with its monopoly of political power held in the hands of the capitalist parties the Republicans and Democrats is not able to carry out the policies which would best guarantee the future and the best functioning of its system. Their two parties are in continual conflict internally and with each other  and their preferred party the Republicans is hostage to a great extent to the backwards reactionary elements of the Christian right.

I was thinking of this today when I read an article about the drugs crisis which is an epidemic in the US and which threatens the very stability if not existence of neighboring countries such as Mexico.

George P. Shultz is one of the top US bourgeois politicians, businessmen and strategists. He was secretary of state under Reagan. He talks about the drugs crisis in todays Wall Street Journal. He says: "It's gotten to the point where you've got to be worried about what's happening to Mexico, and you've got to realize that the money that's financing all that comes from the United States in terms of the profits from the illegal drugs." He goes on to talk about the so called war on drugs, the policy of increased jail sentences and keeping drugs illegal. He clearly hints that he thinks this policy is not a good option. But he is very cautious. No doubt he sees that he would come under attack from the christian right and others in his own party if he raised this too directly and openly.

He says: "we still have not created the political space necessary to raise the issue in public. Right now if you are in politics you can't discuss the problem. It's just poison. The result is that we have this huge problem that is tearing Mexico apart and we have plenty of problems here too and we're really not having a debate about it." Shultz was a major participant in building the base in the Republican party for the Christian right and in developing the right wing christian ideas it has campaigned on for decades. Now these ideas and this base stands in his way of trying to move to a different policy on drugs. He obviously is in favor of some form of legalization.

This is one example of the political crisis of US capitalism. Shultz did not take this issue up when he was secretary of state. After all Reagan and he were in power partly because of the christian right vote and their backward ideas. But the hero that he was, the principled man that he was, he did not raise these issues, he did not try to create the "political space" when he was in power. Only when he left office did he make a pathetic bleat about it. He made a speech recently to Stanford university alumni, a select cautious mob if ever there was one.  In this speech he criticized  the drugs policy of keeping drugs illegal and depending on the state and prison system to deal with the crisis. He admits that after the speech: "I was inundated with letters. 98%of them agreed with me and over half those people said I'm glad you said it, but I would not dare say it."  A former Congress person wrote to him and said he had been a Congress person and had said what Shultz had said about the governments drugs policy and "that's why I am no longer in Congress."

The US political system is not capable of dealing with this enormous crisis of drugs and flowing from this the destabilization of its neighbors.

Just consider what has happened over the past thirty five years. New York passed the Rockefeller drug laws in 1973 and from that the mandatory sentencing laws swept the country. The nationwide prison population as a result increased from 300,000 to 2.4 million. Yes 300,000 to 2.4 million. And the drug epidemic continues and gets worse. But not all are worse off from this wrong policy on drugs. The prison industrial complex is a powerful lobby for keeping this policy and for building more prisons and it is making profits hand over fist. To its shame the prison officers union is part of this lock em up mob.

In the last analysis only by changing society to a democratic socialist society will the drugs crisis be ended. but as we fight for this we must oppose the vicious military prison complex, the right wing backward forces that interact with it, the capitalist political parties and fight for a decent society where people do not have to get out of their minds on drugs to survive.

Sean