American Politics 101: If You’re Gonna Dance
P. Schultz
Below is a
link to an article from the NY Times entitled, “Republicans Learn to Love
Deficit Spending They Once Loathed.”
It is a
pretty good article but what it doesn’t say is more important than what it
says. Here’s the thing: What most Americans don’t understand is that we and our
government have made certain political decisions that require, necessitate the
kind of spending, the kind of deficits that are the result of this Republican
budget. In other words, neither the Republicans nor anyone else can afford to “loath”
deficits, except of course rhetorically.
One, and
perhaps the most important political decision we have made is to be a “great
nation,” that is, a nation that attempts to “project” its power throughout the
world, while maintaining a “robust” economy at home as well as a “military-industrial-surveillance
complex” that is deemed not only necessary but desirable. Such a politics of
greatness, as I like to call it, is expensive. It must be maintained
financially and this requires, as this Republican budget makes clear, embracing
deficits, even great deficits. As some like to say: “If you’re gonna dance, you
gotta the pay the band.”
So long as
this political decision stands, it does not matter much who is president or
whether the Republicans or Democrats control the government. So long as this
political decision stands, deficits will occur and will grow. It’s just the
nature of “the beast” we have chosen to create. Want a different result? Choose
a different kind of politics, say a politics of individual liberty or a
politics of justice or a politics of human rights. Until then, “the beat goes
on” as we as a nation travel toward debtors’ heaven. Someday payment will come
due or, as some like to say: “Just a little old-fashioned karma coming down.”
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