General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Bemoans The End Of White Rule In The United States [View all]bhikkhu
(10,715 posts)Look a bit at the economic history as managed by the supreme competence of WASP culture:
Starting from an arbitrary point, there was the Panic of 1837, then the Panic of 1847, the Panic of 1857, the colossal stretch of serial incompetence that culminated in the Civil War, then the Panic of 1867. After that we had the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1884, the Panic of 1890, and the Panic of 1893. That period is sometimes strung together as the Long Depression. Then we have the Panic of 1907. Of course, during that time we also saw the rise of US imperialism, where we defeated Spain and took selected colonies. Our war in the Philippines, if you read of it, reminds on of Vietnam or Iraq, though no lessons were learned apparently.
I could go on at great length, but my point would be that WASP culture in positions of leadership, was a vast long train-wreck, made palatable only by rose-tinted glasses and selectively failing memory. Once you take a real look at where we came from the present begins to look more like an age of competence, punctuated by brief relapses into the idiocies of our WASPish past.