Economic anarchism at work
McConnell and Boehner's two and a half year non-cooperation approach against anything Obama has now backfired on them as they try to bring the Tea Pary contingent under their umbrella. Despite their consistent intransigence, those two leaders were essentially classic Republican supporters of business, the wealthy, and a view that an unfettered market economy eventually cures all. Their Tea Party brethren have no such allegiances and no certain belief, or at least it seems that way.
The funny thing is, is funny the right word today, that the constituency, as in voters, that elected these Tea Party demons has no clear point of view. Who are Tea Party voters?
There are for sure some scorched earth libertarians like Ron Paul, types of intellectuals that are certainly not commonplace. There are wealthy right wingers who simply want no part of government, and see no function of government in contributing to a fair or humane society, but they are not so many as to be able to elect someone. They can contribute plenty of money of course.
There needs of course to be a significant critical mass of tea party voters that will scare the Republican status quo and that will elect politicians that will cater to their resentments and fears. Have you ever met a real Tea Party voter. I've only known one and randomly had contact with a few others.
The one that I have known(and I will blur this to conceal identity) detests Obama as a starting point. He adores anything related to the military. He receives disability payments for some supposed back injury although the off the books job that he does certainly couldn't be done by someone who was disabled. He only gets his health check-ups and health care at a veteran's hospital(he served in the military but never came within 3000 miles of combat). In other words, we have a person who wants to balance the budget, cut government spending, and thinks he deserves every possible benefit because the government owes it to him.
Does this make any sense?
From my sort of cloistered New York life that's my exposure, except for some brief conversations with crazy people in the library or at the local diner and having to listen to a rant by a young cab driver who must have been tweaking. I've talked to some friends, however, whose families or friends still run deep in southwest Virginia in one case and in the Long Island area in the other. They describe the same phenomenon of Tea Party obsessives who think they personally deserve every possible government entitlement and then some, then some since they manipulate the system to get as much as possible. Balance the budget, shut it down, give me mine, are these the citizens that have become the marginal voter and have scared the almost the entire Republican caucus into a belief in economic anarchy.
As painful as today's market performance was, at least maybe it will shake Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, and others down to their shorts, and if not the market then maybe their corporate donors will give them a ring.
The funny thing is, is funny the right word today, that the constituency, as in voters, that elected these Tea Party demons has no clear point of view. Who are Tea Party voters?
There are for sure some scorched earth libertarians like Ron Paul, types of intellectuals that are certainly not commonplace. There are wealthy right wingers who simply want no part of government, and see no function of government in contributing to a fair or humane society, but they are not so many as to be able to elect someone. They can contribute plenty of money of course.
There needs of course to be a significant critical mass of tea party voters that will scare the Republican status quo and that will elect politicians that will cater to their resentments and fears. Have you ever met a real Tea Party voter. I've only known one and randomly had contact with a few others.
The one that I have known(and I will blur this to conceal identity) detests Obama as a starting point. He adores anything related to the military. He receives disability payments for some supposed back injury although the off the books job that he does certainly couldn't be done by someone who was disabled. He only gets his health check-ups and health care at a veteran's hospital(he served in the military but never came within 3000 miles of combat). In other words, we have a person who wants to balance the budget, cut government spending, and thinks he deserves every possible benefit because the government owes it to him.
Does this make any sense?
From my sort of cloistered New York life that's my exposure, except for some brief conversations with crazy people in the library or at the local diner and having to listen to a rant by a young cab driver who must have been tweaking. I've talked to some friends, however, whose families or friends still run deep in southwest Virginia in one case and in the Long Island area in the other. They describe the same phenomenon of Tea Party obsessives who think they personally deserve every possible government entitlement and then some, then some since they manipulate the system to get as much as possible. Balance the budget, shut it down, give me mine, are these the citizens that have become the marginal voter and have scared the almost the entire Republican caucus into a belief in economic anarchy.
As painful as today's market performance was, at least maybe it will shake Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, and others down to their shorts, and if not the market then maybe their corporate donors will give them a ring.
posted by John Borden at 4:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home