Absurd Texas

Oh dear …

I rarely post here about politics anymore. At least politics disconnected from economics. But politics disconnected from reality still catches my attention.

So: what are we all to make of the absurdity now playing out in Texas? So utterly divorced from reality has the Texas Republican party become, and so completely beholden to far right/libertarian conspiracy thinking is it, that it is preparing the state — which it runs — to repel an invasion force.

Is this invasion force storming north from Mexico bent on tearing down the ridiculous wall built to keep out illegal immigrants? Is the army streaming into Texas composed of drug cartel personnel trying to secure their trafficking routes? Perhaps it is an army of illegal immigrants attempting to bully their way into the sanctuary that is Texas.

No, it is none of these.

The invading army is that of the United States which is carrying out a large training exercise called Jade Helm 15 [who comes up with these names?].

So threatening is the presence of the US Army lumbering about on Texas soil, and so unnerving, that the State Governor has asked his local National Guard to keep a watchful eye on those nasty Federal troops. Apparently the locals fear that the entire operation is simply a cover for a Federal takeover of the state government and the hostile imposition of the hated Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare.

We would all dismiss this ridiculous notion out of hand were it not actually happening. Further: Ted Cruz, the right wing extremist senator from Texas has joined the governor in urging local vigilance. So, two of Texas’ most senior politicians are both acting as if the United States was about to invade their precious island of freedom.

Please feel free to laugh.

And then cry at the steady unraveling of any semblance of sanity left in our political scene. Then again, perhaps the imminent threat from the United States will impel Texas to consider working towards independence. I hope so. In fact Texas independence is something that could be the much needed focal point around which the United States can rally and find its long lost unity.

In light of this absurdity the nonsense that makes up orthodox economic theory looks and sounds positively  … well perhaps not.

Have I said ‘absurd’ enough yet?