"Americans are a proud and patriotic people," Globe columnist Jeffrey Simpson wrote Saturday in his essay A turning point in the U.S.
"They live in the world's only superpower. They have the highest standard of living in the world, measured by per-capita income.
"Today, however, they are perplexed, anxious . . .
"Americans seem to have lost control of their ability to make decisions that will produce satisfactory results. Their deep faith in and love for their country remains unimpaired. Their belief in its ability to get a grip on domestic and international problems has been shaken . . .
"The good news for America," Mr. Simpson concludes, "and for those who admire much about the American spirit, is that so many people are engaged in their politics now.
"Without understanding perhaps the difficult tradeoffs that lie ahead, many of our neighbours are excited by their politics, deeply desirous of changing course, wiser for the errors and failures of the Bush presidency, still believing in their country and its destiny as a force for good in the world."
Whether you agree or not, it's a provocative argument.
So we are pleased that Mr. Simpson was online earlier today to take your questions on his essay and on the future of America.
Your questions and Mr. Simpson's answers appear at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Simpson has won all three of Canada's leading literary prizes — the Governor-General's award for non-fiction book writing, the National Magazine Award for political writing, and the National Newspaper Award for column writing (twice). He has also won the Hyman Solomon Award for excellence in public policy journalism. In January 2000, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada.
He joined The Globe and Mail in 1974. His career with the newspaper began at City Hall in Toronto and with coverage of Quebec politics. In 1977, he became a member of the paper's Ottawa bureau, and eighteen months later he was named The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau chief. From 1981-1983, Mr. Simpson served as The Globe's European correspondent based in London, England. He began writing his national affairs column in January, 1984.
Mr. Simpson has published six books — Discipline of Power (1980); Spoils of Power (1988); Faultlines, Struggling for a Canadian Vision (1993); The Anxious Years (1996) and Star-Spangled Canadians (2000). His most recent book, The Friendly Dictatorship: Reflections on Canadian Democracy (2001), was nominated for the Donner Prize as the best book on public policy.
Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements.
Please be advised that Mr. Simpson will take questions only from readers who use their name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor, globeandmail.com: Welcome, Jeffrey, and thanks for joining us today to take questions from our readers on the provocative thesis in your Saturday Globe essay.
You talked a lot about the worldwide political and economic trends affecting our neighbour to the south. Those will continue to impact America, no matter who becomes president next year.
There are differences between Clinton, Obama and McCain, of course. But how much impact can any president's policies have in face of such powerful world phenomena in a 4- or 8-year term?
Presuming there is no short-term fix, is this going to be a medium-term or a generational effort?
Jeffrey Simpson: Jim, getting a grip on some of the structural policy challenges facing the United States — what I call the "Ds" — will take sustained effort over a period of time. By "Ds," I mean fiscal deficit, current account deficit, trade deficit, debt (national and personal) and oil deficit — to say nothing of social deficits.
A president has to engage the population in a conversation about these challenges: to get the public to buy into their existence, and then to mobilize a coalition in Congress and the country to deal with them.
