Academic

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Is America Growing Politically Unstable? Yet political violence has been rare?

By Glenn Reynolds

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Is America Growing Politically Unstable?

Yet political violence has been rare in the United States in recent years. That?s despite the disputed 2000 presidential election, the unpopular Iraq war and the election of the first black president. Indeed, the World Bank ranks America above the UK when it comes to ?political stability and absence of violence.? And the U.S. rank has actually been on the rise in recent years.

That ranking partly reflects the fact that even heated talk doesn?t cause instability. But if the freedom to indulge in such rhetoric and to protest is curtailed, it can be a different story ? one reason, perhaps, why China receives low marks from the World Bank. So it?s disturbing that some in Congress are already working on new laws to limit political speech, in addition to ongoing attacks on talk radio. Those efforts, if they move toward limiting legitimate expression, should worry global investors far more than a one-off lunatic act, however shocking its results.

As I’ve mentioned below, however, we have a terrible political class, probably the worst in American history. That’s not pro-stabiity.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 10, 2011 (boomark / email).