It appears to me that the Repubican Party has decided that it will force the federal government into fiscal disaster in order to injure President Obama politically. Their smugness in this is repulsive. For shame...
The "center" not only does not hold, it can hardly be said to exist.
There was a time in this country when people tried to heal the wounds that history inflicted on us over four hundred years.
No more.
See Robert McCartney's nastiness about the South in today's Washington Post. My Puritan ancestors would be proud of him. They went to war to crush the South. Submission is what he wants, as they did.
I tried to write about his piece but gave up in disgust. When the country comes apart, people like him and the Republican House members can look in the mirror and consider the price of self-righteousness. pl
Col.
The American “ethos” can no longer process historical change, for reasons about which you write.
From ethos, to pathos, to a tragic form of bathos. No matter where on the conventional political spectrum, it is all the same. Seems to suggest that America’s original sin is hubris. It’s the only thing remaining in DC.
Posted by: Sidney O. Smith III | 24 July 2011 at 12:31 PM
I just got back from a week or so in Beijing, and for the first time abroad I wasn't proud to be an American. While we're involved in dumb political games that puts our economy in danger, they're building things. Big things.
Posted by: g. powell | 24 July 2011 at 12:51 PM
Colonel,
Co-existing with the debacle we're seeing happening on the D.C. stage, elsewhere there are job layoffs everywhere one looks.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/layoffs-layoffs-everywhere-you-look-there-are-layoffs
Posted by: J | 24 July 2011 at 12:55 PM
St. Ronnie's true legacy.
Posted by: Buzz Meeks | 24 July 2011 at 01:45 PM
Pat,
I hope that Gericault's painting does not foretell our future.
Mark
Posted by: Mark Gaughan | 24 July 2011 at 02:18 PM
In the end, the Republicans will fold. Their Wall Street masters will order them to.
Posted by: JMH | 24 July 2011 at 02:22 PM
g.powell
Interest rates are so low that it is almost criminal for us not to be investing in much-needed infrastructure projects.
Our standard of living is eroding. This is not sustainable.
Posted by: Will Reks | 24 July 2011 at 02:25 PM
Pat,
"Horse jerk views", another Gericault painting reminds me of the current Republicans.
Mark
PS: I couldn't paste this painting into my comment. Maybe you can put it in for everyone else here to see.
Posted by: Mark Gaughan | 24 July 2011 at 02:36 PM
As I truly believe that only extremely strong medicine can fix our government by credit card, I would normally support a Republican refusal to deal for less even in extremis. Unfortunately, like Col. Lang, I believe that what we are seeing is political theater intended only to damage the president while producing a last minute deal that will accomplish nothing. It is a measure of how low we have sunk.
Posted by: Phil Giraldi | 24 July 2011 at 03:22 PM
when the "Country comes apart".....?
I prefer the secessionist League of the South types to the McCartney multiculturalist egalitarian guilt-trippers.
Posted by: Ken Hoop | 24 July 2011 at 03:33 PM
Reks,
My thoughts exactly. With money this cheap, plenty of folks without work and an infrastructure that's the laughingstock of the world, it's idiotic not to invest. But money won't be so cheap once the GOP gets its way and we default.
Posted by: g. powell | 24 July 2011 at 03:42 PM
> See Robert McCartney's nastiness about the South in today's Washington Post...
> I tried to write about his piece but gave up in disgust.
I agree -- who can't -- about the state of current American politics, and fear greatly for what is to come.
However, if you could share some of your thoughts about McCartneys's piece and what you find offensive in it, I'd be really interested. I'm a native of Cochise County, AZ, son of parents and grandparents from that part of the world, and, other than having grown up with a general impression that the USA was on the right side and the CSA on the wrong one, can't say that such things were in the air I breathed while growing up. We thought of ourselves as basically undifferentiated Americans when it came to identity, the Civil War was almost a century in the past, and that was kind of it. No sense of triumphalism, injustice, superiority, resentment or any such thing. Maybe we were just so isolated that we missed out on what other parts of the country were experiencing.
So if you, who have much more experience and knowledge about such matters, would talk about how you see it, it would be a favor.
Posted by: Allen Thomson | 24 July 2011 at 04:14 PM
> No sense of triumphalism, injustice, superiority, resentment or any such thing.
Having posted that, I can see that I should have been clear that the words were to be taken in general, not to be associated with any particular side or sentiment.
Posted by: Allen Thomson | 24 July 2011 at 04:36 PM
Unfortunately, Col., vampires can't see themselves in the mirror.
Posted by: Roy G. | 24 July 2011 at 04:52 PM
I'm afraid the the Republican spolitical masters won't muzzel them because they have shorted the dollar.
The Rich plan to buy what they want of America for pennies in the dollar. That is what "privatisation" and infrastructure investment funds is all about.
Posted by: walrus | 24 July 2011 at 06:06 PM
One happy note is McCartney won't bother us 'til mid August. Hopefully he can read up some on his history since I'm sure the Chippewa and Ojibwa would like their land (Minnesota & Michigan) back.
Posted by: fred | 24 July 2011 at 06:41 PM
Well, the Republicans brought us Iraq and the beginnings of the bottomless Afghan pit, so now they would sacrifice our nation in hopes that they can win the next election rather than cooperate to the real benefit of our nation. I hate to say this, but I guess I'm glad to be 70, but I'm afraid I'm destined to see the initial actions leading to dissolution of my beloved country as I have known it.
Posted by: Stanley Henning | 24 July 2011 at 06:44 PM
Colonel,
Why is D.C. (Congress & the White House) being so 'mean' to our nation's citizenry? The President wasn't kind to our nation's elderly when he scared them with the threat that their Social Security checks may not go out next month, even though the money is there for it. That was 'mean'. The Congress led by the nitwits and half-wits of both parties with the primary half-wits (who are currently the minority in Congress0 being Mr. Boner (oops, his spelling of his name is Boehner) and his threats. Boehner's threats are just plain 'mean', as it causes ulcers on both Main street as well as Wall Street as he banters about 'default' this and 'default' that. Boehner is just plain 'mean'. And your state's Rep who is the minority whip Rep. Cantor, his making money betting against the solvency of our federal government, is just plain 'mean' as he is hoping our nation gets hurt. That is just plain 'mean' of him to behave that way.
I recommend that D.C. politcos be corraled like a little Johnny who gets sent to the principal's office for their 'mean' behavior (a.k.a. Bullies), and sat down and forced to watch Talyor Swift very real 'lecture' of it's not nice to be 'mean'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE
Maybe we need to give the big boot to the whole D.C. debacle and put Taylor in the drivers seat since she seems to be the 'sane one'.
Posted by: J | 24 July 2011 at 07:03 PM
I'm afraid that, if we continue in our current trajectory, reflections of the Norway syndrome may begin to appear and we will begin to look like the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, etc. Come on "leaders", let's sacrifice selfish interests and lead for once!
Posted by: Stanley Henning | 24 July 2011 at 07:24 PM
The President should say he will pull all troops from Iraq and Aphganistan if the debt ceiling isn't raised. I won't mind it but the Republicans would immediately cave. Obama doesn't play poker obviously.
Posted by: optimax | 24 July 2011 at 07:26 PM
J, I watched the video and loved it. Rep Cantor will have to explain to his constituents why he hates his country. If they hate Obama more than they love their country, than they deserved Cantor and what they get.
Posted by: Nancy K | 24 July 2011 at 08:52 PM
Col.
This is the best explanation I have seen for our current dilemma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9dxFrAk-I
Steve
Posted by: steve | 24 July 2011 at 09:20 PM
The American public may vote the bums out. All of them.
Posted by: bth | 24 July 2011 at 09:24 PM
The gulag economy it's already here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q-5_7Xg9z9M
The reich's mistake was that it did not list some of it's concentration camps on various stock exchanges,this would seem to be the thinking of the current propononents of public choice theory. These various ''operating systems'' used by the all-powerful ''corporate persons'' at the center of our economic architecture are leading us straight to hell.
Posted by: Augustin L | 24 July 2011 at 09:49 PM
I pretty musch despise Republican posturing, and take the position that the debt ceiling should simply be raised in a "clean bill" without all this deficit debate. That being said, I'm not all that thrilled with Obama's threat to veto a short term deal because it would interfere with his reelection camapign.
Posted by: Bill H. | 25 July 2011 at 12:51 AM