You have to give the Far Right credit for knowing how to milk an economic meltdown and a phony baloney "debt crisis"

"America is simply not set up to handle one political party that bases its political organizing on an alternate reality and the raw power of propaganda. The U.S. government, and our public debates, are organized around the idea that there’s some measure of good faith in both parties, some common basis on which to make decisions. 


"I do not think most Republicans realize this is how their party operates -- but the more cynical high-level operatives certainly do."

-- Matt Stoller, in a Politico op-ed, "GOP's 'alternate universe'"

by Ken

It's another nice piece our friend Matt Stoller has written for Politico, neatly tracing the history of the Right's calculated separation from reality. There won't be much there that's unfamiliar to DWT readers, but Matt does a fine job of setting out the grim reality and sounding the alarm for the consequences, and more important, this piece wasn't written for DWT readers. How often are Politico readers confronted with the reality of the Right's now-completed leap off the cliff of reality?

For sure this wasn't what our great democratic visionaries, Jefferson and Madison, had in mind. All of their theorizing assumed an educated electorate, in touch with reality and capable of processing it, as opposed to a nation of patiently bred dimwits being led by the nose by opportunistic predators and thugs. But you have to give those predators and thugs credit -- they've done masterful job of training and manipulating their lost legions.

I trust we don't need -- here, at least -- to reestablish the cynical fraudulence of the "debt crisis." The combination of the economic meltdown has provided the billionaire predators and the ideological crackpots (not that the categories are mutually exclusive) of the Far Right with cover for a transformation of the country into their private creamland.

SO SONNY JOHN BOEHNER MANAGED TO RAM HIS
DEBT-REDUCTION PLAN THROUGH HIS OWN PARTY

After the major embarrassment of not being able to get his own crazies to back his crackpot atrocity of a "plan," crazed it up and cracked enough heads to get it past the House. Of course the Senate has already tabled it, and there was never any chance of its becoming law. However, it's now officially the "other side" baseline for any compromise -- for example, against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan, which instead of being an atrocity is merely an abomination. Seriously, flash back a year and imagine how seriously Harry's plan would have been taken, especially if it had been proposed by a Republican.

But flash back another couple of years, and as Ian Welsh reminds us:

Predicted August 2nd 2008

20) A huge push to gut entitlements in 2009, no matter who is president. Even if the US quickly pulls out of Iraq, the deficit will be totally out of control, and hundreds of billions will be needed for bailouts. A rapid consensus will form that rather than increasing taxes significantly on the rich, or slashing expenses like the military R&D and equipment appropriations budget, that the real problem is people retiring at 65, poor people getting Medicaid and old folks who aren’t destitute receiving Medicare.

On January 4th, 2009, I wrote:

I think I got this one wrong, given the consensus forming for a large stimulus (assuming the Republicans don’t kill it). We’ll see, but I’ve tentatively marked it wrong.

Between the president's one-hand-tied-behind-his-back approach to fighting the depression, the Republicans' tireless efforts to keep it going, and the rise of the radical centrists, it simply took an extra election cycle for Ian's scenario to play out.

CAN GENE ROBINSON NOT KNOW THAT "PROGRESSIVE"

ISN'T SYNOMOUS WITH "DEMOCRATIC"? REALLY?

In terms of selling the "deficit-reduction" package of lies and delusions to the eager-to-be-hoodwinked public, the Right has benefited, as Gene Robinson ventured in his Washington post column "Why progressives need a Big Idea":

Momentum is on [the Republicans'] side, even though they control just one wing of the Capitol -- and even though they advocate measures that most Americans reject.

Conservatives are on a winning streak because they have a Big Idea that serves as an animating, motivating, unifying force. It happens to be a very bad idea, but it’s better than nothing -- which, sadly, is what progressives have.

The simplistic Big Idea that defines today’s Republican Party is that taxes are always too high and government spending is always wasteful. Therefore, both taxes and spending need to be reduced.
Conservatives are on a winning streak because they have a Big Idea that serves as an animating, motivating, unifying force. It happens to be a very bad idea, but it’s better than nothing -- which, sadly, is what progressives have.

The simplistic Big Idea that defines today’s Republican Party is that taxes are always too high and government spending is always wasteful. Therefore, both taxes and spending need to be reduced. . . .

[T]he essence of the far right’s Big Idea fits neatly on a bumper sticker: Cut taxes, cut spending. It’s a simple, powerful message that connects with everyday experience. Who hasn’t encountered an example of government waste and inefficiency? Who enjoys paying taxes?

I can think of no greater threat to our nation’s prospects than the GOP’s policy-by-anecdote crusade against government.

And Gene goes on to list some of the obvious ways in which the U.S. "is falling behind other nations in infrastructure, education and health-care indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy," and on to issues like inequality of income distribution and energy research and planning.

The only problem I have with the column is that when Gene talks about "the progressive response," he doesn't mean what we mean by "progressive," he means Democratic, and goodness knows, the only group that's less progressive than congressional Democrats is congressional Republicans. I find this kind of shocking from Gene Robinson, who should know better. Nobody has worked harder than the president to make sure that progressive voice are never heard; as we know now, he considers true progressives far more dangerous than far-right-wingers.

But then, as people like Ian Welsh have been pointing out since before President Obama took office, the even larger danger than his actual policies, bad as they may be, is the discredit their failure will bring upon the progressive brand, even though there's nothing progressive about them. In fairness, there are an awful lot of people out there using the "progressive" label to market a radical centrist agenda. We've already had the word "liberal" shredded by the propagandists of the Right; faux progressives may have done the same to "progressive" on their own.

ABOUT THAT SCHEDULING NOTE I PROMISED

When I shoved tonight's "Ring Lardner Tonight" piece ahead to 6pm PT -- on the ground that it was already ready to go, and having gotten home with about 30 seconds to spare to be able to make the switch -- I promised an explanatory note. But you don't want to hear about my day (and why I got home with 30 seconds to spare to make the switch), and I've lost interest in talking about it. You've got troubles of your own.

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