The FarceThat Is America

A number of you have responded to my primal scream over the so-called debate in Washington. Let me make a brief addition.

It is absolutely a Republican party driven problem. It might be nice, and ever so politically correct, to try top ladle the blame out on both sides, but that is a total misinterpretation of what is going on. This is the end result of a thirty year attempt to defund the Federal government and to eliminate the safety net programs we call entitlements. That might sound unpleasant and thus be something we should avoid saying, but it is the truth. We have elected enough extremists – and they are extreme – that our political process can be hijacked and used to the advantage of a very small number of people. For some reason the media does not want to admit this. Instead it prefers to peddle the old “both sides are extreme” mantra. That is plainly foolish. It is grossly misleading. Worse: it cheapens and undervalues the electorate. Poll after poll show huge majorities of voters supporting those entitlement programs. Voters want them saved. They want a balanced approach to deficit reduction, and are tolerance of tax increases.

Every single plan so far presented as a solution, by both parties, ignores the voter’s position. They are all unbalanced. They all privilege spending cuts over revenue increases.

Why?

Because our entire elite has lost leave of its senses. Our leadership has gone insane. It is so self-involved, and so totally cut off from the country at large, that it has decided national suicide is a preferred option. That we cannot discuss a left of center solution – there are none on the table – clearly indicates the root cause of the insanity. Our entire elite is obsessed with appeasing the Tea Party extreme. And appeasement it is. The Democrats, and particularly the White House, have capitulated and have no pretense any longer of defending left of center ideas, principles, or policies. No one is articulating to the electorate a policy that could be remotely construed as progressive.

We are being led by the nose by a small, vocal, ideologically extreme, and zealous group. There is nothing normal or democratic about their attempt to foist their neo-libertarian, anti-government, utopian driven and hopelessly naive vision of society on us all. But none of our usual bulwarks are working. The Republican party has shifted far to the right in its narrow minded effort to unseat and oppose Obama. It sold its soul to the far right in order to offset the loss by Bush of its centrist respectability. It is now reaping the consequences of that bargain with the devil. It incessant policy of “no” has culminated in its loss of coherence. Last night it couldn’t even muster enough votes to pass its own budget proposal – the far right broke ranks and refused to budge even with impending doom around the corner. The GOP is infested with an apocalyptic mindset. Until that is purged our dysfunction stems entirely from that right wing infighting.

In response some of you have asked: what if no political parties?

This changes nothing.

Politics does not evaporate when parties come and go. Politics is the very essence of human interaction. Getting things done, reaching consensus, making bargains, the give and take of favors, are the stuff of management. They get amplified on the Washington stage, but they never, ever go away. It is naive to think they might.

The extremists who are attempting to change our entire way of life are highly motivated and, I assume, sincere. They are shrill and loud. They are fervent and uncompromising. They are undemocratic. The noise of the fight might be too loud for some of you, and it might be unsavory or unpolite. But that is no reason to tune out or hide. Indeed, just the opposite. It is because a sufficient number of moderate people have become disillusioned by our political discourse, and thus have subsequently tuned out, that the extremists have seized center stage. The steady march into extremism has been encouraged, not mitigated by the absence of the moderates. This is not some TV show we can turn off. It will always be there and is subject to our will.

The current disgusting nature of the spectacle in Washington is the product of our neglect. We are getting the government – or lack thereof – that we deserve. This gridlock is our fault. This failure is ours. That our leaders are inept, weak, vain, extreme, callous or simply stupid is because we haven’t chosen wisely. That they ignore us is because they are used to our indifference.

Democracy puts a great burden on “we the people”. We need to remember that next time we call our politicians names, or laugh at the way they go about their business. They are representing us. Or at least they are supposed to. We can change anything we like about this: up to and including the constitution.

Maybe now would be a good time to start: someone has to fix the farce that is America.

Addendum:

I leave it to Yves Smith [via Paul Krugman] to some up the situation:

“It is hard to come up with words that are strong enough to describe what an appalling display of misguided ego, inept negotiating postures, bad policy thinking, and utter disregard for the public interest are on display in this fiasco. But as a friend of mine likes to say, ‰ÛÏThings always look darkest before they go completely black.‰Û?