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Blah blah, debt ceiling.
Yesterday, I casually posted this to my Facebook feed. And now this morning, I read this.
What are these? First of all, go ahead and read 'em, if you're not familiar with 'em. The first link is something like a Russian Doll of additional links explaining the proposition floated by McConnell of Tribe Republican, which might be best explained as a proposal to let Obama lift the debt ceiling without involving Republican votes.
My first impulse was to think that there are still Republicans that are still fueled by a sense of rational self-interest. That is, they've got something to lose if businesses go under, because that's the teat that they're milking. Defaulting pretty much helps tank an already struggling economy. Even if I think they're all wrong on tax cuts for the very wealthy, this is one of those easy consensus votes.
"McConnell is drawing praise for being a grownup, and that's fair, but only in the sense that it's mature for a child to punt to her parents."* Well, I don't know who's calling him 'grownup', but I'll take Rauch at his word. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. I'm not sure if I agree with even this kind of back-handed almost-compliment, though because if the House Republicans weren't so utterly insane, I'd say that it was the most craven kind of politics - the kind of politics where you're willing to risk lighting the city afire so that you get your fiddle practice in.
Tough to say though. I mean, it's tough in that it's difficult to tell if the House Republicans are actually insane or just indifferent to the fate of the country as long as they 'win'. I'm not really sure what's worse, if it's simply a combination of not knowing, having never cared, and the taste of fame and adulation. Freshman House Republicans like Joe Walsh and Michele Bachmann are outright accusing the President of lying to Senate members and the American people**, which is hardly necessary, because Democrats know it, many Republicans know it, businesses know it, other countries know it; like I said before, this isn't the complicated calculus.
The rift between senior Republicans and younger Republicans continues to grow.
This is a natural extension of the direction taken by the Bush administration, exemplified by a quote now attributed to Karl Rove. To whit, "..And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''***
As much as I disliked the Bush administration, this new crop is even worse. Now, the Tea Party people have always been there. They're the people with a fear of a national census that still want the government to stay away from... the government entitlements that they're actively using. They're the group that believes that privilege and rights are a zero-sum game. They're also the group that has so little to worry about that they're actively worried about someone richer's taxes going up.
They'd be a farce if you only looked at their understanding of policy, but they're very loud and they're very active. They hijacked enough local elections to get a bunch of new people into the House who are either True Believers or they're willing to pretend to be in order to grab Discord's golden apple.
Unlike during the Bush administration, where the greatest strength of the Republicans was that they could act in total lockstep, during the Obama administration, they're undergoing almost apocalyptic fallout from the repercussions of that. Now the writing is on the wall - the Republicans created a tiger in Fox News, riled it up with fear and loathing, then grabbed its tail, assuming that they could let it eat the Democrats, it'd get full and sleepy, and they'd be able to let go only to discover that the tiger'll eat anything it can grab. Now, we're hoping that they're just new to realpolitik, but what we hoped isn't true. These people literally want everything to go sideways. They're nihilists. They're willing to burn our economy to ashes because their team will literally cheer while it goes up because they think that's good.
I said that the Republicans could punt the tiger and take the momentary hit, or they can let it eat us. They are lunatics and conspiracy theorists. They're more then happy to eat you alive.
* It May Be Desperate, But At Least It's Juvenile - Rauch
** Debt-Ceiling Deal? 'Hell, No Caucas' Stands Firm - Welna
*** The panning of 'the reality-based community' is well known by now, but the article is originally from 2004. Faith, Certainty, and the Presidency of George W. Bush by Suskind. It's still worth reading as a historical article at this point. Study that reality; judiciously, as you will.
Yesterday, I casually posted this to my Facebook feed. And now this morning, I read this.
What are these? First of all, go ahead and read 'em, if you're not familiar with 'em. The first link is something like a Russian Doll of additional links explaining the proposition floated by McConnell of Tribe Republican, which might be best explained as a proposal to let Obama lift the debt ceiling without involving Republican votes.
My first impulse was to think that there are still Republicans that are still fueled by a sense of rational self-interest. That is, they've got something to lose if businesses go under, because that's the teat that they're milking. Defaulting pretty much helps tank an already struggling economy. Even if I think they're all wrong on tax cuts for the very wealthy, this is one of those easy consensus votes.
"McConnell is drawing praise for being a grownup, and that's fair, but only in the sense that it's mature for a child to punt to her parents."* Well, I don't know who's calling him 'grownup', but I'll take Rauch at his word. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. I'm not sure if I agree with even this kind of back-handed almost-compliment, though because if the House Republicans weren't so utterly insane, I'd say that it was the most craven kind of politics - the kind of politics where you're willing to risk lighting the city afire so that you get your fiddle practice in.
Tough to say though. I mean, it's tough in that it's difficult to tell if the House Republicans are actually insane or just indifferent to the fate of the country as long as they 'win'. I'm not really sure what's worse, if it's simply a combination of not knowing, having never cared, and the taste of fame and adulation. Freshman House Republicans like Joe Walsh and Michele Bachmann are outright accusing the President of lying to Senate members and the American people**, which is hardly necessary, because Democrats know it, many Republicans know it, businesses know it, other countries know it; like I said before, this isn't the complicated calculus.
The rift between senior Republicans and younger Republicans continues to grow.
This is a natural extension of the direction taken by the Bush administration, exemplified by a quote now attributed to Karl Rove. To whit, "..And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''***
As much as I disliked the Bush administration, this new crop is even worse. Now, the Tea Party people have always been there. They're the people with a fear of a national census that still want the government to stay away from... the government entitlements that they're actively using. They're the group that believes that privilege and rights are a zero-sum game. They're also the group that has so little to worry about that they're actively worried about someone richer's taxes going up.
They'd be a farce if you only looked at their understanding of policy, but they're very loud and they're very active. They hijacked enough local elections to get a bunch of new people into the House who are either True Believers or they're willing to pretend to be in order to grab Discord's golden apple.
Unlike during the Bush administration, where the greatest strength of the Republicans was that they could act in total lockstep, during the Obama administration, they're undergoing almost apocalyptic fallout from the repercussions of that. Now the writing is on the wall - the Republicans created a tiger in Fox News, riled it up with fear and loathing, then grabbed its tail, assuming that they could let it eat the Democrats, it'd get full and sleepy, and they'd be able to let go only to discover that the tiger'll eat anything it can grab. Now, we're hoping that they're just new to realpolitik, but what we hoped isn't true. These people literally want everything to go sideways. They're nihilists. They're willing to burn our economy to ashes because their team will literally cheer while it goes up because they think that's good.
I said that the Republicans could punt the tiger and take the momentary hit, or they can let it eat us. They are lunatics and conspiracy theorists. They're more then happy to eat you alive.
* It May Be Desperate, But At Least It's Juvenile - Rauch
** Debt-Ceiling Deal? 'Hell, No Caucas' Stands Firm - Welna
*** The panning of 'the reality-based community' is well known by now, but the article is originally from 2004. Faith, Certainty, and the Presidency of George W. Bush by Suskind. It's still worth reading as a historical article at this point. Study that reality; judiciously, as you will.
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