My Feelings Exactly

One Salient Oversight has a post which pretty well sums up part of my feelings about the Republican wave of 2010, and even includes a Simpsons reference (from nc links).  Let them do what they want, and let them reap the whirlwind:

Of course these sentiments are nonsense. Anyone with any understanding of the complexity of economics, the effect of government programs and the problems besetting the unemployed would know that such a gigantic cut in government spending would have only a negative impact upon the US. It would cause social and economic pandemonium.

And yet part of me wants to the GOP to do it. I do admit that there is some perverse pleasure in watching an economic collapse unfolding, in the same way that people hang around and watch the aftereffects of an accident.

Nevertheless I do have a rather pragmatic reason for wanting this to occur - the disaster that it brings on the nation (and the rest of the world) will be so damaging that no one would take hard-line conservatism seriously ever again. The disaster would be so horrible that Obama would be re-elected by a landslide and the Republicans would be utterly humiliated in Congressional elections. More than that, hard-line conservatism throughout the world would be discredited in the same way as communism was discredited after the collapse of communism.

And why? Conservatives have painted themselves into a corner. They are just so angry that things like Medicare, NASA, unemployment benefits and the Department of Education exist. It's not just that they don't like big government, it's that they so strongly believe that their understanding of limited government was the same thing believed by the founding fathers that anything, anything which suggests slightly higher government tax revenue or spending is immediately cause for revolution and "watering the tree of liberty". In the words of Grover Norquist, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

While the Republican governors here in the Midwest are slashing budgets, their approval ratings are shrinking also.  We haven't even really felt the effects of their policies, and yet people don't like them.  I don't see why people think that cutting federal discretionary spending or entitlements will help out the economy.  I would guess that the impact of those cuts will make Republican policies even more unpopular.  Their ideolody has become so radical that I don't think people understand that people like Jim Jordan mean what they say.  Jordan always waits for the sane folks to make a deal, then he votes against it and "stands on his principles."  This act is pretty popular out here in flyover country, and lots of Tea Party folks are doing the same thing.  Now, the inmates in the asylum are nearing a majority in the House of Representatives.  If we weren't already in very terrible shape economically, I would like to see folks call Jordan and his idiot associates' bluffs.  Let them reap the whirlwind of their moronic rants against big government.  Let them sink the economy and screw average Americans so the super wealthy can pay less in taxes.  Let them face the voters after their idiocy takes hold.  Unfortunately, they will always be able to collect their Congressional pay while never having to take any responsibility for anything, because saner people will come in and make deals, and leave Jim Jordan preaching about how moral and upstanding he is.  Nobody will call him what he is, a leech, sucking money from taxpayers for doing nothing.