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Nation states are run on pragmatism, as that is how food, clothing and shelter are provided. Preaching about morality and idealism is best left for church. Now that is not to say that honesty is not a essential virtue in a Democracy as it builds trust among people and that is the glue that holds a Democracy together...............The United States has never been run on a higher moral or idealistic plain than any other nation in history (the Founders didn't even abolish slavery which they knew was a abomination against mankind). Government is always about the pragmatic, of how to solve problems with the resources and constraints at hand. Where was this secular moral ism taught that the US should always adhere to this higher unobtainable moral calling? It is human nature that we are imperfect and will fail to obtain perfection. Yet there are those who continue to castigate every action of the US as being morally repugnant. The United States may not be perfect but we are the best thing that has come along so far.....Now the "whiners" will say, "Ohhh that doesn't mean that we should not try and attain a state of grace through our works." That is true so long as you are willing to accept the fact that you are equally responsible for the state of affairs that we are in today. Have you not used electricity to run your computer to read this. Is that electricity not generated by fossil fuels which contribute to global warming? Once you turn off your fossil fueled electricity then you have the moral authority to preach all you like. Until then one has to solve problems in the best way that they can, and accept that fact....With regards to honesty and the trust it builds. The US is wearing the rug of trust pretty thin. As Gore Vidal has pointed out the US became a National Security State in the late 1940's with the advent of nuclear weapons. For the first time in mans history men have been able to wipe themselves out in an instant. With such a dire state of affairs it has been deemed that there is information that the public should not be privy to as it might effect their security (lives). From that point forward there has been a slow degeneration of trust in our government and mass media. In the 2000 election, for the very first time the election process itself was called into doubt. Doubt over the veracity of vote counting. Since then trust between parties that hold different political points of view is beginning to fray. At some point if this trend is not reversed the glue that holds our Republic together will fail and authoritarianism will take over to maintain order so that the pragmatics of day to day life will continue. So that is the reasoning of the statement, "Will western style democracy be to inefficient and be cast unto the scrap heap of history while Chinese beneficent authoritarianism will takes it's place."