Shortly after 9/11 when I began taking a hard look at the Bush administration and a strange thought occurred to me. Could they, the right, be trying to bankrupt the country? This idea seemed so farfetched at the time that I kept it completely to myself. I was raised by a Goldwater conservative and although they had different ideas about how things should be done I thought we were all on the same team and wanted America to do well economically.
So the question was what would they get out of it? Why would anyone consider bankrupting the country good idea? But when I started to think about it, from a very twisted ideological perspective, bankrupting the country could go a long way towards achieving a lot of the long held goals of the radical right.
It could effectively end government oversight of private industry, lower wages, do away with benefits, destroy the social safety net, bust unions and increase military recruitment. Sure, the pie will be smaller, but if you’re properly positioned everything will be for sale at bargain prices.
Now, I’m not saying this was the plan. But it certainly has worked out that way. The republicans have done the bankrupting, with wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, subsidies and tax advantages for favored industries and the bank bailout. And now that the damage is done they haven’t missed a beat in taking advantage of the disaster they’ve brought about. They’ve gone straight for social security and coordinated attack on unions as we’ve seen in Wisconsin.
It does give one pause to think. So, am I crazy? Was this the plan? Can anyone produce any hard evidence that this was what the Bush administration had in mind? How did Grover Norquist intend to shrink government to a size where he could drown it in a bathtub? I think if we could demonstrate motive and opportunity we might be able to open quite a few eyes in this country and begin to turn back this tide of destruction.