As we approach the cliff on the impending climate disaster, Republicans remain steadfast in their contempt for government, torpedoing any proposal that would show that government has a constructive, or even more inimical to their views, a crucial role in averting the disaster. Republicans are threatening the welfare of millions of people around the world to make a point about their views on government.
The climate disaster I’m talking about is the economic climate disaster that will soon engulf the world when Republicans fail to reach an agreement that will raise the debt ceiling. They may not even realize it yet, but Republican lawmakers are like that boy playing chicken with James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,“ as he guns his car toward the cliff, he tries to open the door to bail out at the last minute only to realize that he's stuck and he sails over the cliff in his car to a fiery death. Republicans are steering us straight over the government default cliff, and they still think they can bail out, but it’s too late, they’re stuck in the mire of their ideology and their intransigence and they are about to take us all over the cliff.
If it were just a movie, as the car went sailing through the air, there would be a quick shot of us in the back seat just before impact looking at each other in shock, mouthing the words, “I never imagined they’d go through with it.”
But this is not a movie and it’s becoming increasingly hard to imagine how Republicans will be able to extricate themselves from the shackles of their strict orthodoxies as they accelerate us toward the brink. One by one the opportunities to bail out on their game of chicken click by like white dashes on the pavement and the cliff looms ahead. In legislative time, only a few seconds remain before we reach the edge.
And without getting into the merits (or lack thereof) of conservative ideology, what’s truly striking about this whole affair is how little concern our audacious chicken-playing legislators show for the potential disaster their little game is likely to bring down upon us all. While they quibble over a few hundred billion dollars worth of government revenue, their threatened default would cause trillions in economic damage and misery for millions of people.
Republican lawmakers are prepared to drive our country's economy over a cliff. Do we really want people like this making decisions about our climate, economic or otherwise?