At the risk of turning this blog into "What Charles P. Pierce Said," we look again to the sage of Boston for his thoughts on the "austerity agenda" being mercilessly flogged by the likes of Pete Peterson, "Fix the Debt," and the
Not all that long ago, we had a national election in which the idea that we are all equal partners in the ongoing creative act self-government out of which comes a political commonwealth suited to the needs of the majority of the country was extensively litigated and, at the end of it, the question was decisively settled in the affirmative. Willard Romney's gaffe about the "47 percent" blew out two of the tires on the bandwagon, and then his selection of zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan blew out the other two, and that extravaganza of I-Got-Mine-Jack conservatism that went galumphing through Tampa finally cracked both axles. Then, of course, the whole show moved back to Washington, and became subject to the gentle ministration of the political elites and the courtier press that serves them, and the definitive decision of the election quickly was forgotten in favor of the notion that some deal, any deal, was better than what lay beyond a completely artificial deadline that had been produced a year ago in response to a completely created crisis. There is no question that some people will get hurt if we roll all the way down the GFI, but, if the president and the Senate do their jobs, the pain will be temporary. The imposition of an austerity agenda as part of some bipartisan "deal" would be infinitely worse.
The crazy-ass Rethuglicans have no real interest in "deficit reduction" other than as a stalking horse for shrinking the non-military part of the Federal Government down to a bathtub-drownable size (G. Norquist); some Democrats, it seems, are too enthralled with making a deal at almost any cost (B. Obama), and the Beltway Bubble dwellers are, well, Bubble dwelling (R. Marcus). As Pierce says, we're being fashioned into a nation of casual cruelty.
(Image: Cat food-- it's what's for dinner.)
