Attainable Objectives

This article appeared in the German news-magazine Cicero, in its February, 2026, issue written by Alexander Marguier, Cicero's editor-in-chief. It reads "Germany faces systemic paralysis". In the first sentence of the article, the author writes "Germany works at a dysfunctional level." He lists the reasons in more detail, like the World's economic restructuring and industrial realignment. He can barely contain his alarm:

  1. "The world evolves with breathtaking speed and loses old certainties."
  2. "Alliances between nations collapse."
  3. "Traditional industrial sectors struggle to survive."
  4. "New technologies displace the old economy."

About the paralysis, Marguier says that it has lasted so long, a layer of  "Mehltau" or mildew covers its moving parts. Wow, that's pessimistic! He describes the situation as "Versuch von Besitzstands-wahrung, der mangels Substanz." Basically, Germany is living beyond its means. It can maintain its status quo only by going deeply into debt.

But like Dick Meyer complaining in his book Why We Hate Us, Marguier overlooks the source of the problem. In their view, shit just happens! In fact, German political parties have nearly opposite views of the future, so that the nation cannot maintain a national sense of direction. The split makes Germans have to pay for two national budgets, one to satisfy Socialists, the other the Conservatives, more or less like the dis-United States.  

America's political parties have dispensed with the illusion that they can work together and provide consistent, continuous leadership, or provide the sense of common purpose to the nation's citizens. Democrats have a political philosophy; Republicans have their own, and they contain few common goals or inclusivity; so that the antagonism tends to pull the nation apart, making the citizens hardly more than hostages to the political infighting. All the politicians can do is obscure the nature of the problem, to deceive the public and maintain the status quo.

I cannot speak for Democrats, but Republicans need to think in terms of fundamental solutions, if they want the American Dream to continue. The Dream needs political input. Some Republicans say they will never use the word "fundamental" again, thanks to former-President Barack Obama saying he wanted to fundamentally alter the nation's politics. Maybe they should use some another word, but think "fundamental". 

I suggest the following agenda to move the Republicans forward:

  1. Since we live in a freedom-loving nation, we need to take advantage of the options available to us.
  2. Since Republicans mostly discount the policy-options promoted by the Democrats, we need to think in terms of attainable objectives, hence the title of this post.
  3. Just posing a few questions will hopefully open up lines of enquiry to us.
  4. To the end of my days, I hope Republicans will think in terms of attainable objectives.

For one thing, we believe in the capitalist model. We encourage partnerships between entrepreneurs and venture-capitalists. The former brings to the table the inspiration of untried commercial ideas and approaches, while the latter brings to the table financial support. The entrepreneur becomes the CEO, while the venture-capitalist becomes his first shareholder. Given the proven track-record of this approach, I fail to understand the Democrats' resistance to it.

More than anything else, Republicans should at least consider a division of the dis-United States, so that the new-found nations can govern according to their own precepts. We face a national disaster; so we have to gear up our latent problem-management mode of thinking, the same as if we respond to a destructive tornado or hurricane. It involves in an oversimplified sense resources and logistics. Our disaster-committee sits down with its array of communication devices and plots out each stage in the recovery. As a society, we have done this so often, the various agencies know the procedures by heart.