Fiddling

guest-posted by Armadillo Joe

Make no mistake, the GOP is fiddling like mad while our nation's economy burns because complete economic collapse is the only thing they can hope for to revive their political fortunes. That's why Huckleberry Graham threw so many public hissy-fits yesterday: his party is staring down the barrel of historical irrelevance at best, perhaps even utter oblivion and Hooverian infamy, because "I got mine" or "Every man for himself -- and me first" is not a method of governance -- it's anarchy.

Which is what they want. Or at least the ruling class and money-soaked leaders of the GOP want. All the drooling Jesus-freaks, Antebellum race-warriors, various hayseed Nazis and assorted other gun-toting toothless goobers, quivering terror-alert mediocracies in the suburbs and all those cheeto-stained wingnut bloggers in their mom's basements are merely tolerated because the plutocrats at the top of the economic food-chain have to at least appear to win elections in our so-called "democracy." They would be perfectly happy to have America turn into a feudal corporatocracy, ensconced as they are in their gated communities with private security firms manning the perimeter. They have been starving the public sphere for the sake of the private sphere for decades to achieve precisely that end. If government can be showed to be a failure, making everything ugly and crumbling, government itself can be blamed and its power contracted accordingly.

Their current hyperventilating about the grass-repair provisions for the National Mall in the recovery bill is Exhibit A. All it will do is make our nation's capital prettier and employ a bunch of people in the process, so I guess we can't have that.

What we need right now is socialism, a lot of it and for a long time. Our last and only real extended period of Unvarnished American Socialism of 70 years ago is what made us a modern industrial nation in the 20th Century. Watch this slideshow to see what I mean.

If this bill passes and our country actually recovers, the GOP as we understand it now will cease to exist. That is only a good thing with no downside whatsoever for anyone who matters. I'm tired of having to pretend for the sake of "bi-partisanship" that bad-faith greed-mongers are worthy partners in debate. As John Cole said this week:

Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

So, Dems -- for the sake of all that is holy and righteous and good -- for this bill you must now fight, fight, fight, fight, fight FIGHT!