Voices
And since the “fiscal cliff” was
“averted” and the media has shifted
focus to the next big battle, discussion of the debt ceiling dead-enders
and their future plans has only gotten more blithe and unconcerned.
MacGillis provides a fine example of
what’s been steeping in the Beltway
brain since New Years Day — this
passage from the Washington Post’s
Chris Cillizza that treats debtceiling hostage taking as a perfectly
natural and polite thing to do, never
registering even a scintilla of shock
over the implication of using the
threat to tank the global economy
as a bargaining tactic:
“Make no mistake: No deal on
the fiscal cliff was a political loser
for Republicans; this is an issue
they needed to get off the table
in order to find better political
ground — debt ceiling — to make
their stand.”
This is like saying, “Now that
the issue of what to wear to brunch
has been settled, we can now proceed to strip naked and slice off our
own genitals with a rusty paring
knife,” and never even twitching at
the hot, molten insanity of the idea
that was just e xpressed. MacGillis
writes (and I emphasize):
“So: a threat to plunge the nation’s [sic] into default and with
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it imperil the nation and world’s
economy, seen only a year and a
half ago as the political equivalent of a nuclear option, is now
viewed as ‘better political ground.’
What to make of this? The shift in
mindset is surely in part a function of basic human nature: our
Give me oxygen right
now or I die and that’s that.
The rise in the debt ceiling
is similarly necessary.”
remarkable ability — for good or
ill — to adapt ourselves to new
realities. More than that, though,
it is a function of that far more
Beltway-unique tendency, to report and comment on politics
and governance as pure gamesmanship in such a way that conveys savvy but not judgment. And
if it’s all a sport, who’s to object if
one side has radically shifted the
goalposts? Good for them, if they
can get away with it. And after all,
the higher the stakes in the clash,
the better the story.”
Some people just want to watch
the world burn, and some people
just want to get that story
first. They’re all dangerous.