It’s a sign of how insane the current state of politics has become when David Stockman, the budget director for Ronald Reagan (who was considered a right wing extremist in those days), is advocating policies to curb the debt that would be considered far too progressive by even Obama and the Democrats .
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Stockman effectively skewers two pillars of the prevailing Republican lunacy: the fallacy that tax cuts for the rich create jobs, and the specious proposition that vast spending on “defense” makes us all safe. The late Chalmers Johnson would have been gratified, though he would have pointed out that Stockman actually underestimates the full cost of our military empire.
Stockman has been doing the rounds on “liberal” news shows lately. When our national autopsy gets written, this will be one of the more bizarre vignettes. Here we have the closest thing to Reagan’s ghost rising up on the Senate floor and telling Mitch McConnell that the Gipper ain’t happy. And still it makes no difference to the course of events. We are past the point of no return. Brace for impact.
I read Super Sad True Love Story on Mano’s recommendation. It’s uncomfortably close to being nonfiction. Satire becomes very difficult to pull off when reality becomes as crazy as it is right now- and when the real-life outcomes are looking distinctly unfunny.