At least that's my sense. That in some fundamental way, during the past year the world - at least our world, by which I mean the United States - has changed. It's not so much that the United States changed overnight. It did not. It crept up on us, as each year corporate influence increased, our industrial base declined, our authoritarian tendencies grew. In the last year, the extent of the damage has been revealed, snapping into focus. Showing those of us who would look that the world has changed.

As Ian Welsh pointed out, America ended the first WWII with all kinds of money, half of the world's economy. That was never going to last, of course, but we've acted like it not only has lasted but will last forever. Like we would never run out of money - both the government and its people. We pissed it away building prisons in a War on Drugs we can't win and occupying nations in other, literal wars we can't win.

And yet, as the wreckage surrounds us, we keep doubling down. The answer to two intractable wars in Muslim countries is to expand into a third. The answer to a financial system with too much money is to give it more. On this, just about our entire political elite agree. Because our system is broken.

The world has changed.

Americans have lost 14 trillion dollars in wealth in the last two years. We are facing a real (U6) unemployment rate of over 16% and many on unemployment are starting to run out of benefits. We have lost more than 6 million jobs in the last 18 months. To paraphrase the Boss, these jobs are going and they ain't coming back. At least not any time soon.

Yet, in the midst of this economic devastation, we have the largest wealth transfer in world history. Not from the rich to the poor to help them through these hard times. Or from the Government to the masses of people suffering. Instead, the transfer has been from the masses to the wealthy few who caused a lot of the suffering.

Do you want to know Obama's legacy? I've got Obama's legacy right here and, thanks to Barry Ritholtz, you don't have to wait for the history books:

The world has changed. Don't believe me, take another look at that graphic (and it doesn't even include WWI and WWII).

Now, change is scary and a lot of people hate it. One of the central teachings of the Buddha, a person who was a lot smarter than I am, was that change is inevitable and people suffer because they resist change.

But if there's suffering in resisting change, there can be strength in embracing it. Isn't change what everyone claimed to want last year, no matter how little of it we've actually seen? I've argued that liberals are weak, but in a changed world, perhaps we can be strong. Naomi Klein:

Capitalism is on trial. And you have an organic, grassroots, sort of spontaneous revolt against the elite – which is actually what we’re hearing with this rage at CEOs, and bonuses and government collusion with the elites. Rage is an opportunity. The rage is there, and the country is seething, the world is seething with rage. The question is, where is it going to be directed? I feel there’s a moral responsibility for the Left and for progressives to provide an alternative in this moment that is moral, that is principled, that is just, that is hopeful, because if we don’t, then that anger is so easily directed at “those damn Mexican immigrants,” at “the first African American president.” So I feel a tremendous sense of urgency. It’s not just, “Hey, our time has come.” It’s, “We’d better get our act together because this anger is going somewhere.”

The world has changed.

Which is why, I think there's this huge disconnect that we're seeing among some liberal blogs. I cannot imagine an election in four years that simply pits Obama against some Republican as if nothing is any different than it was last year or four years ago. I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm just saying that I cannot imagine it.

I cannot envision our broken system lasting that long without something fundamental happening. That the American people, no matter how well trained in helplessness they are, will sit still while trillions continue to go to Wall Street and they're looking at a jobless recovery and a new "healthcare" plan that will charge them an arm and a leg, perhaps literally, for crappy private insurance when they've repeatedly said that's not what they want.

Given that's my world view, I am completely uninterested in the day-to-day battle between Republicans and Democrats. I don't care about Mark Sanford. Or Sarah Palin. Or John Boehner. And it's why I can't get excited about whipping for a "public option" that's going to be drafted by a Congress the banks own.

If you believe the world has changed, then it doesn't make much sense to behave as if it hasn't. To participate in the broken system.

Which is not to say that it isn't tempting to be sucked back into seeing the world through a construct where we live in a democracy and not an oligarchy. Where you can accomplish liberal goals by participating in the two-party system. Culture is a powerful thing and in a two-party system, the natural instinct is to pick a side and fight. That presumes, however, there are two sides in our political system. And my suggestion to you is that there are not. Maybe there never were. But at least we could pretend.

I can pretend no longer. As Matt Taibbi said at the end of his Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs:

It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going.

The world has changed. We must change with it.