Why Not Let the Republicans Deal with This Mess?

I've been thinking this for some time now, having no love for the proclamations of the vague Obama and absolutely no desire to listen (again!) to those who try to convince me that it's all only until he gets into office (when apparently his collectivist steak will emerge from hiding). I've had it with this system and have devoted myself to campaigning for IRV and proportionate representation. Until then, however, we have an economic mess of astronomic proportion, and should hand it over to those who made it, the imbecilic republicans and the insane neo-cons. The Democratic party (such as it is) will be decimated should it be blamed for failure to remedy the worst recession in U.S. history. The house of cards continues to fall, let's let those motherfuckers deal with it. McCain 08!--Pete

By Dave Lindorff, Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff08232008.html


If the direr warnings about the US economy and the general state of the world are correct, maybe we should be glad that Obama’s presidential campaign is in failure mode.

Two terms of the Bush/Cheney administration have pretty much destroyed the dollar, wrecked the US industrial base, emasculated the US military, undermined public faith in the legal system, wrecked the educational system, bankrupted working people, fired up many labor unions, bankrupted the government and threatened the retirement and Medicare systems.

Do we really want to now hand this mess over to a Democratic administration and a Democratic Congress?

All that will do is ensure that Democrats will end up having to confront, and in the end get the blame for the whole looming catastrophe, allowing the otherwise thoroughly discredited Republicans and neocons who created this disaster to come back claiming it was the fault of the liberals and their pinko friends.

A better idea might be to let the Republicans win it, and then have to deal with it and take the consequences.

Imagine President John McCain trying to invade Iran. Half the US armor is broken and waiting for repairs in junkyards of Iraq and Kuwait. Meanwhile, the Chinese might at any time just up and say they’re unwilling to finance another US war.

Imagine John McCain trying to balance the budget, or better yet, rescue the dollar! He could raise interest rates, but that would tank the already stumbling economy. There’s nothing he could cut in the budget that wouldn’t cause a national riot. But on the other hand, if he lets the dollar keep sinking, we get massive inflation, because America doesn’t make anything anymore; it’s all imported.

Veterans are increasing in number, while their health services are being slashed, and the number of homeless vets is soaring. It won’t be long before President McCain would be faced with a new bonus-march assault on Washington by angry vets, reminiscent of the one that followed WWI. Would he want to send Gen. Petraeus in, ala Gen. Douglas McArthur, to confront them? Would the federal troops open fire on their wounded and hurting brethren?

I can certainly see some merit to the idea that maybe now that Republicans have almost completely destroyed the America I grew up in, they should have to take the heat for what they have done. And there is going to be a lot of heat.

The only problem I have with this tantalizing notion is that there is also some real heat to worry about—global warming heat, and that’s getting to a point of no return. Another four years of Republican no-nothingism on the environment could be fatal not just to America’s future, but to humanity’s future itself.

But then, it’s probably too late for pro-active measures on climate change now anyhow. A thorough collapse of the US economy, with people no longer able to afford cars and gas to drive them, might do more to slow the global heating cycle than any measures that a Democratic Congress and administration might pass.

So that could work out for the best too.

America is a land founded upon greed (for all the grant rhetoric about inalienable rights, the revolution was basically about not wanting to pay taxes, after all, and that obsession appears not to have changed much down the years), developed through greed, and it looks like greed may ultimately destroy the place. Who better to deliver the coup de grace to a national economy than a guy who is so stinking rich he doesn’t remember how many houses he owns? Who better to run the American Titanic into an iceberg than the Navy veteran son of two generations of admirals (especially one whose antics caused one of the biggest non-hostile disasters on a US aircraft carrier in history)? Who better to have to face the wrath of a nation than a guy who couldn’t even stand up to a pantywaist bully of a president who had sucker-punched him repeatedly?

So I guess we can watch Obama channel Kerry and Gore with equanimity. The Republicans are going to get what they deserve anyhow, and we Americans, who bought the Kool-Aid for so long, will get ours too.

DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net