If It's Broke, Don't Fix It

One of the trademarked mantras bleated daily (along with "America's the biggest..." and "America's the greatest...") is "When Americans put their minds to something there's nothing they cannot do."

And as well as being heart warming and patriotic (and quite possibly narcissistic and inane) it's also patently true and goes a long way towards explaining why so many governmental policies and financial institutions have failed over the last ten years: because that's exactly what the people behind those policies and institutions were aiming for.

All those assertions that "government is broken," made mostly by fanatical Republican ideologues, were, in fact, "tells": their goal was never to fix said broken government but to instead demonstrate how broken it was. By breaking it.

Unlike the Bermuda Triangle or razor blades in Halloween apples, it's not that far fetched. How historically anal retentive conservatives could allow such shocking and awesome negligence to occur, fomenting Ponzi schemes and circa-1980's pyramid scams or using the plot of The Producers to bilk tax payers out of -- it's kind of intoxicating to even say this -- trillions of dollars---is really beyond reason. For, with the average right wing Republican ideologue, every "i" is meticulously dotted and every crucifix is scrupulously crossed and nothing escapes the zealous machine's scrutiny. Think about it.

A brilliant and passionate community organizer like Obama could suddenly become ineffective as a leader; the inability to take action against climate change in the face of overwhelming evidence and consensus among scientists from all corners of the globe (except Kansas and Texas); the incessant stalling of presidential and judicial appointments; the jaw-dropping obfuscation behind the war on health care reform; all these phenomena point less to the apparent inefficiency and/or unworthiness of Obama's (and the world's) agenda and more to the efficiency behind the opposition's effort TO STOP PROGRESS.

No alternative solutions. No helpful suggestions. No deal making. No back room cajoling. Just a simple, trillion pound cinder block of STOP.

It's George Orwell meets Naomi Klein with the illusion of democracy meeting the reality of fascist capitalism.

One is almost forced to conclude that between the "failed" banks and the "failed" government and the "failed" networks and the "failed" whatever else that failure (to paraphrase Brother Theodore) has become this country's greatest success. Break it and spend gazillions fixing it. Like kicking open a door and throwing a dirt biscuit on the rug only to produce a miracle vacuum cleaner (didn't I see that on a Honeymooners episode?). Which of course cleans inefficiently which necessitates the purchase of accessories which then perpetuates the original flawed comic premise which then...oh, you get it.

All these MBA's, these geniuses, the Geithners and Summers's, the Goldman Sachs's the Bush's and Cheney's...they succeeded by causing failure. While everyone inside the box approaches the whole thing as an unmitigated disaster, the destroyers themselves are outside the box hailing their triumph and cashing in.

Since all but jettisoning traditional conservative principles for an unholy fealty to opportunistic disingenuousness, Republicans have evolved into a mono-principled pitbull party in which the only defining characteristic is dumb, lethal loyalty.

The only thing standing between the Republicans and their fully formed Ayn Randian wet dream of a society is The People.

Ah. Those pesky People.

So why bother keeping up the charade of wanting a government which does anything but govern? The answer is there must still be a modicum of fear in the Repubes that The People might somehow, despite the massive attempt to fatten and laxify the masses into media-saturated senselessness, wake up to their nightmare and revolt -- old style.

Hope, Orwell wrote, lies with the proles. The Reps' fierce loyalty, combined with the loss of power and prestige makes this pack of pitbulls more dangerous to Democracy than ever.

You gotta hand it to Republicans, though. When they put their minds to something there's nothing they cannot do.

Holy shit.

 

Comments

[jennyrebecca]

Thanks for another great post. I, for one, am feeling beat up and disenfranchised. For the first time ever, I didn't vote yesterday. I'm seriously considering emigrating to Canada. This country feels very hostile. Thanks for being one voice of reason.

[TomR]

----
Hope, Orwell wrote, lies with the proles.
----

"Hope is faith-based denial." - Mark Maron

[Bontempo]

I wonder how many of you saw Tim Robbins' play of 1984 a few years back, done with his amazing Actors' Gang. I have been frightened ever since and Steven's post today reminded me just how terrifying this world has become. Since I am also home with the flu this week, I am feeling exceptionally vulnerable and scared.

Keep remembering, Obama=chess, the rest of them=checkers.

[Michael Gene Sullivan - Huffpost Blogger]

I wrote that adaptation. I'm glad it stuck with you. And the show just got back from a tour of Spain, where they have a more recent experience with open Fascism than we do.

[susanlno]

It's easy to blame the Republicans for everything, but mention must also be made of (1) the Democrats, who consistently put bipartisanship ahead of policy and (exactly like the Republicans) collecting lobbyists' money ahead of doing their jobs, and (2) President Obama's too-great willingness to compromise before even starting to negotiate. (I know I'll get attacked again by the "give him time" crowd, but Obama has not done all he could to push the at least partly progressive agenda he talked about during (but not after) his campaign. Granted, he's been met with solid opposition from the infamous Party of No, but he hasn't actually tried to make all of the changes they're opposing.)

As I said, it's easy to blame the Republican Party--they're such obvious villains. But the real problem is the two-and-only-party system that has allowed such rampant corruption and do-nothingism to become the norm.

[Michael Gene Sullivan - Huffpost Blogger]

The modern Republican party is made up of a type that we don't hear much about anymore: Reactionaries. It's too easy to call them Nazis, Radicals, or wingnut because they are infuriatingly smallmindedly vicious, but only a few are actually Nazis. Radical would require a new, revolutionary thought or analysis, whereas going back to the antebellum South isn't exactly new. And wingnut is something useful you put on a bolt.

We need to put these flatheads in historical context to understand them: Small Government, Big Business Reactionaries who continue a long tradition of disempowering the collective will of the People - also known as the Elected Government, of enriching a financial aristocracy to the detriment of the Commonwealth, and using populist demagoguery and chauvinist nostalgia to whip up a confused, disempowered citizenry that they, themselves confused and disempowered.

It is a position occupied as long as there have been haves and have nots. It is simply more obvious now because there is so much to have, and so much of it controlled by so few. And those few would crash the Earth into the Sun rather than surrender a bit of wealth or power.

Which is why we should eat them.

[Esprit]

Ehhhhhhhhh­hhhhxcelle­nt solution! Marinating would improve the taste!
Jarion

[JoDeeVa]

Rousseau's sentiment was most eloquent, but.. Jeez, what a bitter fruit to eat, eh? I say.. skip the meal and proceed immediately, without further ado, to the Revolution...;}

[Social Construct]

Bet they taste like chicken, as in coward. I would never insult domesticated fowl by comparing them in any way with the subjects of this blog post.

[trishinpitt]

chicken hawk... it's a little gamier.... a little tougher... from all the chest pounding and the hypocrisy makes them kind of bitter....

[Garretto]

You make me laugh and horrify me. Well said!

[Social Construct]

And the income disparity, wage stagnating, blame the poor for everything, too big to fail, lobby 'til ya puke, keep yer government hands off my medicare, ignore everything but guns and abortion, yes we can (if they let us), corporate fascist beat goes on. Makes one proud to be American .... unless you actually have a conscience.