Here is a look at a sample of events from 2010—the repercussions have yet to be fully realized, their ripples spreading in 2011.
Midterm Elections
Reacting toward increased government spending and stimulus bailouts, nationwide demonstrations sprang up on April 15, 2009, and the populist Tea Party movement was born. The movement raised eyebrows in 2010 when Republican Scott Brown, running on a populist message, won the Senate seat held for decades by Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, who passed away in August 2009.
Tea Party conservatives—and a broader underlying dissatisfaction with increased federal spending—exerted themselves in November’s midterm congressional elections, when Democrats lost seats in the Senate (but retained majority) and the House of Representatives, where Republicans gained their largest majority since the Truman administration of the 1940s. Don’t be fooled by the lull after November, as this populist movement is still alive, and will be so as long as the economy and its underlying fundamental problems have not been addressed.
Korean Peninsula
Tensions between North and South Korea escalated quite a bit in 2010, beginning with the North allegedly sinking a South Korean warship earlier in the year, and ending with artillery barrages and Pyongyang threatening a nuclear “sacred war.” And in between these two Koreas are 30,000 plus U.S. troops deployed as a deterrent to North Korean aggression.
The Korean War was never really resolved. A cease-fire between the United States and United Nations command, North and South Korea, and China was signed in 1953, establishing the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 160-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide militarized strip of land separating the two countries. How far will this latest escalation go? Who knows, but communist regimes by their nature will be nothing but trouble, all the way to the end.
WikiLeaks
What’s in the password protected “insurance” file uploaded by Julian Assange to the WikiLeaks website? The founder of the site posted the 1.4 GB encrypted file on WikiLeaks to protect himself from a supposed Pentagon manhunt for him, before his arrest earlier this month.
The existence of and publicity generated by WikiLeaks brings up broader issues pertaining to national security, Internet freedom versus regulation, transparency, and proper behavior of governments and their diplomats. Of concern for citizens are the coordinated efforts of powerful government agencies that when pursuing a suspected private citizen, can put the heat on private-sector entities, shutting down one’s personal finances and Web presence to isolate and silence his/her voice.
Arizona and Immigration
Arizona and its infamous Legal Arizona Workers Act are center stage on the immigration issue, as the federal government’s challenge to the state’s law is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Some state and municipal governments have proposed similar legislation in trying to deal with their own immigration problems, demonstrating the influence throughout the country of Arizona’s immigration stance. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the law in the coming months.
Declining U.S. Dollar
The dollar could be in real trouble, but who can predict, as the facets of economics have become so complicated, but generally, the dollar’s heading down as gold and silver increase in value. Debates could arise in the new Congress over returning to the gold standard, or possibly dismantling the Federal Reserve (a private/government hybrid entity).
Jim Fogarty can be reached at [email protected]
