Pre-Class Debate Two -Declaring Victory

I wanted to write a pre and post blog on the last debate just to see if my opinion changes once we have the live session.  As of right now it seems that team one was able to clearly identify a threat to US security and explain the implications of that threat.  US power is based on its ability to dominate both the economic and military world.  If the near future means that it will no longer be the dominate player in these two areas then its power will by definition wane.  This is not to say that the US will not continue for some time to be the largest military or have the greatest GDP as group two rightly points out.  But the distance between the US and other economic powers is shrinking.  US economic liabilities, as detailed in group 1's second post and ignored by group 2, already have required the US to shrink its military.  The future is projected to be more of the same.  The US will no longer be able to afford a global military presence.  It will need more from NATO but that too will mean a reduction in US influence and power.  It is relative not absolute values that are important to American power.

Group two did a nice job in the first post of offering the end of the American Dream as the great threat to America.  "It is only logical to then understand that the corrosion of the American Dream is by far the greatest threat to the power that it has created." I actually liked this more esoteric approach to the question and I was looking forward to an expose of the growing economic gap, the shrinking middle class, the high costs of higher education, rising consumer debt, etc.  

But in the second post group two did a little switch.   The follow up post agrees that economics is the driver of American power, but now group two sees American ingenuity and gumption as the savior of the nation and so thankfully the American Dream is still alive.  "We believe it is America’s ability to adapt and respond to changing conditions and challenges through the ingenuity and knowledge creating abilities of its citizens, whose free minds are energized by the tangible and intangible power of the American Dream that will allow America to continue as a global leader. And that is why the demise of the idea of the American Dream would therefore pose the greatest threat to U.S. power." So in the end they were not arguing what IS the greatest threat to US power.  They were arguing what WOULD be the greatest threat to US power.