A turn for the bizarre

I just listened to this insane story, on the way in, on NPR, Boeing protesting with the Government Accountability Office over an Air Force decision to hire competing manufacturer Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS to build refueling planes.

This political period has taken a turn for the bizarre.

Americans are the whiniest, most self-centered, entitled people on earth, I think.

Whatever happened to competing on your merits?

Isn't that what this country is all about?

Except when it doesn't go our way. In which case, what we are about is getting our way.

Can you imagine why the rest of the world does not trust our good intentions?

All I know is that you cannot compete with manipulation for long. Soon enough, people see through you. And they start paying attention to your real merits or liabilities.

And I have to say that I am quite embarrassed by my country and many of my fellow countrymen, right now. I'm embarrassed by a world where people think that this is just part of the game. I'm embarrassed by a politics where this is so much of the game, that people stop being able to distinguish between what is honest and what is bullshit.

But mostly I'm just embarrassed for people who behave in such ways and call it good.

How sad that all Americans and all people do not have more self-respect than that.

I have to say that this is the first time in my life when I've felt like my country was on a prolonged and serious bad path. Most Americans agree, apparently, according to a new poll.

Unfortunately, the things they propose to improve life in America are often and generally the very things that undermine real progress.

"Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they would support raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 to pay for tax cuts or government programs for people making less than that amount. Only 38 percent called it a bad idea. Both Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidates, have made proposals along these lines.

More broadly, 43 percent of those surveyed said they would prefer a larger government that provided more services, which is tied for the highest such number since The Times and CBS News began asking the question in 1991. But an identical 43 percent said they wanted a smaller government that provided fewer services.

And although both Clinton and Obama have blamed trade with other countries for some of the economy's problems, Americans say they continue to favor trade — if not quite as strongly as in the past. Fifty-eight percent called it good for the economy; 32 percent called it bad, up from 17 percent in 1996.

At the same time, 68 percent said they favored trade restrictions to protect domestic industries, instead of allowing unrestrained trade. In early 1996, 55 percent favored such restrictions."

This is a period when Americans have decided that manipulation rather than our most serious liberal values are what should guide our thinking and our efforts. And it is just hard for me to recognize my country, often, these days.

We have taken a seriously bad path. The question is whether we can find the courage to own up on that one.

All I know is that I have no interest in pretending that things have gotten better for our efforts. Or that I have more reason to be proud of my country, today.

I want to be proud of my country and its efforts, again. But we have to earn it.

And that is one value that I hope we have not completely lost sight of.