The economy

With the way that the economy is going and all of the different things that the government is doing to royally screw all middle and lower class Americans (like the recent ‘dividend tax cut’ and the passing of the estate tax repeal in the HOR), I was going to post a major bitch post, but then I came across this post by Jeff Cooper and decided that he said everything that I wanted to say and more, but more eloquently (and it’s nearly a month old)!

What’s Going On?

It should be fairly obvious by now that, my promises of the last two days notwithstanding, I’m not in a position to return to normal posting at the moment. One reason is that I’m very busy at the moment–in fact, I just now finished a three-and-a-half hour lecture. I know professors aren’t supposed to have much to do in the summer, but there you are.

The second reason is that I’m once again feeling worn down. Over the weekend, I spent several hours working on a post (hinted at on Monday). The subject, triggered by the near-simultaneous passage of the tax cut and the massive increase in the federal debt ceiling, was going to be a catalog of reasons why Republicans of various stripes had reason to be displeased with President Bush and the Republican Congress, drawing on the words of self-identified conservatives as support (my future student Joshua Claybourn was going to receive a link; go visit him anyway). And I was going to conclude by suggesting that the only conservatives who could be truly satisfied with the present administration–at least among those paying attention–were those who lived by the philosophy of “I got mine,” and those for whom partisan triumph is the most important goal.

And then I see stories like this one from the Denver Post, in which evil Republican strategist Grover Norquist revels in his plans to wage scorched-earth campaigns against Democrats across the country:

We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals–and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.

Bipartisanship is another name for date rape.

It is exaactly the [Charlie] Stenholms of the world who will disappear, … the moderate Democrats. They will go so that no Texan need grow up thinking that being a Democrat is acceptable behavior.”

Or I see columns like this one from the Los Angeles Times (warning: intrusive registration required), in which supply-sider Bruce Bartlett describes the evolution of the idea that tax-cut-driven deficits were an affirmative good, because they would “starve the beast.” Not that Republicans, at either the national or the state level, seem particularly anxious to cut spending at present; in fact, spending has risen more rapidly under Republican-controlled legislatures than under those controlled by Democrats. Is it any wonder that some Democrats, staring aghast as tax cuts and rising spending combine to push the federal government deeper and deeper into debt, follow Paul Krugman in beginning to think that the Republican-controlled government is determined to provoke a fiscal crisis that will lead to the elimination of the social safety net? (conservative commentator James Taranto regards this as “the latest in a series of Democratic delusions,” but Kevin Drum rebuts Taranto with Republicans’ own words).

Or I see stories like this one from the Globe and Mail, about the plans of a conservative Hollywood producer and White House insider to convert President Bush into an action hero in a movie about September 11, just in time for the 2004 campaign, with the open cooperation of the White House–and with partial funding provided by the Canadian government, for goodness sake (link via Atrios).

And again I find myself throwing my hands up in exasperation, and hanging my head in despair.

Politics has always been an ugly game; I have no illusions about that. I couldn’t possibly–the first campaign for which I worked was the McGovern campaign against Nixon in 1972 (I was eight). But the ugliness of the present day is absolutely astounding. There seem increasingly to be only two options: demonization and hagiography. And the public and the media tolerate this; indeed, they frequently seem to encourage it.

I need a break. I’m going to take a couple of weeks away from here. I’ll be back–clear-headed, I hope, and with my blogging batteries refreshed–in mid-June.

By the way, the Mets still stink.