I am convinced that the world would be better off if the US would stop trying to be the world's "moral" arbiter and agree that other sovereign nations get to do what they want within their own country without American interference. In the end, our sanctions in whatever form they take succeed only in hurting the population of the other country and not the government (and sometimes not even that so much as the number of alternatives to the US expand as the number of countries needing alternatives expands thanks to our heavy handed use of sanctions) as well as American business.

So what happens is that the population in these countries whose governments range from the suboptimal to the execrable have to deal with their own government's behavior (rarely changed by our sanctions) as well as the effect of our sanctions, whatever that might be. Oh, that sounds like a major improvement.

When will we figure out that engagement and persuasion are more effective than attempts at punishment? Of course, how we relate to the world is pretty much the same as the way we relate to our own population, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...

The only way to alter this dynamic is for the electorate to start caring about this behavior and vote out of office those that support it. Equally unfortunate is the reality that the American people have very little control over the federal government because the only access to the government is through their elected representatives. There is no process by which an initiative can be brought by the people themselves, any and all initiatives must be brought through an elected body, thus neatly allowing the "ruling class" to perpetuate this kind of behavior.

This is why it was such a bad idea to cede so much authority that belongs to the states to the federal government. This previous behavior is why the states depend on the federal government - in Missouri for example close to half of the state's budget comes from the federal government which makes the states nothing more than a client of the federal government and allows the feds to dictate to the states.

We're screwed.

It is "A History of Venice" by John J. Norris.

This book is not light mind candy as it covers the history of the Most Serene Republic (Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia) in almost agonizing detail from its inception as a rude democracy around the year 800 until its collapse as an ossified oligarchy nearly a thousand years later in 1798 under pressure from Napoleon. It would be good for Americans to realize that the City State of Venice, a true republic, predated the United States by almost a 1,000 years and remained a true republic for longer than we have been a republic before morphing into an oligarchy. As part of Mr. Norris' detailing of Venetian history, he documents how the republic morphed into an oligarchy and the rise of the Venetian intelligence apparatus which became the most feared in Europe. It defines a most chilling parallel for our own history as a republic. I read this book back in 1989 when it was originally published and have thought a lot about what it said in the last few years.

Mr. Norris also defines what he calls the JJ Norris corollary:

The presence of such qualities as freedom and liberty etc exist in inverse proportion to the frequency to which they are proclaimed to exist.

based on principles, concepts, and ideas. Let's go for the fluff! The American people have shown themselves to be so shallow that they make decisions based on the fluff instead of the principles, concepts, and ideas.

And thus we (i.e. those of us who believe in following our founding principles and/or (I'm sure this will be amusing to anyone who reads this post) the Golden Rule - Do unto others as you would do unto yourself) are screwed. Imperial power doesn't recognize the right of anyone to criticize it. Imperial power also doesn't recognize any external constraints on its behavior. Unfortunately, even changing the crew in our government will not alter this dynamic. This mindset is inextricably embedded in (as you point out) our media as well as all the think tanks in Washington (where the power hungry go when they're out of power instead of getting a real job) as well as virtually any other public policy organization and these organizations are not subject to the will of the electorate. And, equally unfortunately, the electorate doesn't seem to recognize exactly how much we have diverged from what we once were.