Bob Burnett, on Huffington Post, 8-27-31 writes: “Republicans don’t understand that it would be a terrible idea to crater the American economy because they’ve lost touch with reality. Hypnotized by a toxic blend of Reaganomics and Objectivism, Republicans don’t understand how the economy works or the concerns of middle-class families.”
I add: They seem lost in rosy visions of rugged individualism, divine providence and frontier independence. To them, government is mostly superfluous and obstructive. The well-being of the whole society is of little interest or concern to them. Other people are useless unless readily cooperative and agreeable with rightist aims. The People have no value but as workers or consumers, defenders of property and status, voters to be confused and misled. Public land exists only to rip resources out of for private gain.
Paradoxically, one can run a small business or work years for a corporation without learning how the economy works or is worked. Such a person can lose touch and personal identification with the middle class. One takes on a false concept of self, fooled by aspirations and belief in upward mobility, the attaining of imminent wealth and respect. It’s all just around the corner, coming next year. One only has to keep grinding away. While it’s true that wealth seldom comes without effort unless inherited, chances must be recognized and seized with timely initiative. Opportunity may not be constant.
For Republicans, a human reduces to Economic Man, rationally maximizing material values while relegating all else to traditional religion. Science, art and literature acquire value only as their works obtain market share, ownership status and acquisition kudos. Republicans feel they gain virtue from association and property. They inflate illusions and magnify appearance over substance, especially about themselves. Hence, they cloak themselves in the flag, spout big ideals and wave the cross as touchstone of truth, all the while acting out Economic Man scenarios and vilifying opposition.
Equally paradoxical, there is no Economic Woman. Women are mere servants, adjunct partners in parenting and domestic livelihood. Women are to be allowed little say in getting pregnant or giving birth to more Angry Old White Men. Few people in the world are more confused and misled than Republican women. Just listen to the incredible nonsense many of them spout in Congress. But, then, Plato thought some people were born to be slaves and to love servitude. And, of course, some women want to be men or think they are.
The most immediate threat to national security is this internal split of right from center and left. It absorbs the country’s political energy and will, drawing a screen of false issues and misperception across vast parts of the public which blinds it to the real dangers and prevents massively coordinated response. The NSA may prove to be our Achilles’ Heel. The Republican Party bars America’s way to a united and viable future.
With no horizon in view and compass reversed, the GOP steers through fog by its wake.
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