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Surprised by Rogues
Okay, I admit being surprised, even feeling ambushed,
apparently like Romney. How many
sharpies figured fellow rogues would turn suicide bombers by putting predatory
capitalism itself on trial? Oh,
my. Who guessed Santorum (an
orthodox Catholic of late anointed by evangelicals!) would be the last purist
standing, with Gingrich the Catholic convert in the wings? Or that no Democrat but two wingnuts
would gang up -- and disown -- Bain Capital as "vulture capitalism"? How unkind, least of all to
vultures. Bain hired killer hawks
who feasted only on live companies, leavings the picked-clean corpses for riff
raff. "Raptor
capitalism," I say.
Overall, in these grim times, does not civilization advance
by watching a defective party's multiple tectonic splits play out? Observe this
marvel -- a major party, facing an incumbent on the ropes during hard times --
without the whiff of an actual jobs program, other than firing that socialist
Muslim. Can Rethugs truly believe
this nonsense will work in the general election -- MORE tax breaks for the rich,
fewer regulations, new wars, and cuts to Social Security/Medicare? Maybe a Reagan pushed by a Rove could
pull off miracles, but dull Romney only has tired Bush hacks on call.
Lucky for Obama the imploding GOP encourages us to adapt a
Newtonian law -- a mediocre body in power tends to stay in power unless acted up
on by an equal or greater force. Imagine the robotic, job-killing, flip-flopping Romney, bleeding from a
hundred primary cuts, against a relatively popular "war president" without
major scandals and an expanding economy. And then reboot with Santorum the Obsessed vs. Obama. I'd pay to see that show.
Do we have a meritocracy -- or what -- electing the best hustler to the highest post, the prize for fooling more of the people more of the time?
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