The Truth Will Set Us Free

Ah, but what is the truth, you ask? Good question. To explore that question, I suggest looking at two separate angles of it.

The first and ultimately the most important question is: What is the ultimate goal of the current Administration agenda? What does cutting funding for government agencies and programs, allowing the deficit to continue to run rampant, and giving huge tax breaks year after year in the face of said deficit mean for us as the average citizen?

Tuck in the back of your mind the second question, which is “How are they accomplishing it?” Now, scroll down to the November 15th article written by Kevin Drum titled "Stealth Conservatism".

Political Animal

The author's point is: ""Republicans are mostly nibbling around the edges, not taking a chainsaw to liberal programs." And why is this a problem? Because it's hard to mobilize widespread opposition to conservative policies when they're put into place a little bit at a time. It's the old boiling frog problem."

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it refers to putting (figuratively, not literally. No live frogs were harmed during the writing of this blog!) a frog in a pot of boiling water. Immediately the frog will struggle to escape.

However, if you place a frog in a pot filled with room temperature water and then slowly raise the heat, his internal survival mechanism will not be triggered and eventually he perishes.

This is certainly where we find ourselves today. The Emperor has no clothes, but his constituents are just as convinced he's clothed as he is. Who is the tailor, then? Carl Rove? Grover Norquist?

I highly recommend the following article:

Starving the Beast

In a nutshell, could the ultimate goal of such fiscal irresponsibility be aimed towards a specific end? Republicans appear terrified of government. Taken to its extreme, won't such reckless spending ultimately force shrinkage of government in its entirety without having to actually cut popular programs that Democrats and Republicans alike would fight for?

Who needs to take on the Environmental Protection Act, Social Security, OSHA or protecting civil rights when bankrupting the government into powerlessness will effectively do it for them?

The water’s boiling, dear Republicans, and I ask that you fight with me to get out of the pot. Government is not a bad thing. It keeps the water you drink clean, insures that your work environment (or home, for that matter) won’t kill you, and provides help when the catastrophic happens. Nip this harebrained philosophy in the bud before the damage requires generations to repair it rather than decades. This is not the Democratic way, and it certainly is not the Republican way. Our children will thank us for what we do today to stop this.