I have this feeling that somewhere along the way, and not so many years ago, our country took (was forced) down a terrible wrong turn as a society.
Two events stand clearly in my mind as the two worst things in the past 12 years: Bush v. Gore and the appalling unconcern showcased by pundits and politicians alike in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina swamping the city of New Orleans.
Two points, by definition, describe a line segment. Extended one way, they form a ray - or a trend.
Three points, likewise, can describe a curve - whether, in the case of compassion, the trend is waxing or waning.
We can discuss the particulars of deals and who wins and scores and sets themselves up for wins and scores further down the pike.
Or we can take notice that, like it or lump it, even discussing debt ceiling increases in this new and dangerous fashion represents a third sad point in twelve years... and one that suggests - strongly - we have taken the wrong lesson from the national unconcern for New Orleans. We have embraced it.
The proper response is not - oh, it was as good as we could get. It's definitely not - Victory!
The proper response is abject shame - that when push never had to come to shove, we chose to concoct an excuse to shove citizens in dark times down deeper, darker holes.
(more below)
The Tea Wees did not hold anyone hostage. They were people we knew to be arsonists when it came to funding the Federal government. They were driven to drought-stricken forest by one party... handed gas cans and matched by the other...and.. really. Are we surprised at what happened?
And the terms of this deal. Threading the needle of debt burden and stimulus spending - that's not just nuance. That's important stuff. But handing over a primary role for future budget decisions to a fiscal Star Chamber (one friend's nickname for it) or Security Council (my label for it)? This is how the Roman Senate became first a a bullpen for future adventurers, then a rubber stamp, then a puppet theater - through the creation of special offices. For once you start, it never stops.
Democrats did not lose. Republicans did not win. Everyone lost, because the Republic is diminished by the terms of this deal.
And why? Because that was the price of keeping entitlements 100% sacrosanct and getting a few hundred billions dollars additional credit. For now. Until the next excuse to redefine the world Republic.
In my opinion, everyone in the room panicked. And fearful people are usually poor choices for leaders, for judges - and for lawmakers most of all.
So, what could things have been like? Well, let's go back to that time when it was possible NOT to give away trillions of projected budget surpluses in the 2000s. When it was possible to survey the devastation wrought by a late August 2005 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico...and deal robustly with the natural disaster in a way that affirmed the best that America has to offer itself and the world.
This is a post I wrote years ago in a Carnacki "Got a Happy Story?" diary. I repost it in full.
Try not weep too much over all you have lost and might never ever see again.
New Orleans (3/24/06) President Al Gore arrived this morning to commemorate the official reopening of New Ninth Ward, the last of a series of mammoth reconstruction projects that have run nonstop since the devastating Hurricane Katrina.
The partial failure of the levees was only stopped in time to avoid the total loss of Orleans Parish because of the immediate availability of the Louisiana National Guard and the prudent decision to bring assistance to the people of New Orleans, rather than disperse several hundred thousand people across the country. This idea had been raised by critics of the administration, chiefly Senate majority leader George W. Bush (TX) that was supressed as being unworkable in time to save lives, and unworkable for the task of getting New Orleaners home to begin the recovery of their homes and families.
Republicans have criticized the $50 billion Katrina recovery program as throwing good money after bad, though many firms that give heavily to the GOP have profited greatly from the competitive contracts offered to aid the Army Corps of Engineers in the refurbishment of the levee and water works, as well as cleanup, recovery and reconstruction of the several tens of thousands of homes ruined by the floodwaters.
New Ninth Ward is a mixed-use development containing two thousand residential units of various sizes, shops, and restoration of greenlands and tree-lined boulevards for approximately one-fifth of the original area, which will per some estimates be another three years in the remaking.
Funding for the project is drawn from private funding, collateralized against the post-Clinton Surplus Fund which is currently estimated at $2.5 trillion. At a rate of 3.5% for 10-year bonds and unemployment at 3% nationwide, hardly any strain on the credit of the country has been felt.
Republicans in Congress have criticized the reconstruction as a dangerous distraction from the prosecution of Al Qaida sympathizers in Pakistan or protection of refugees in southern Sudan. "This fool is giving away the store, while our brave soldiers are fighting terror overseas!" Senator Bush declared.
Gore Administration officials scoffed. "We have a $400 billion defense budget and volunteerism in the armed forces has hit record levels for the fourth year in a row," Press Secretary Paul Begala told reporters during a visit to the now-infamous Crescent City Bridge. "You want to see how Republicans help their countrymen, you just come to Gretna."
Mr. Begala referred to the unfortunate incident, where sheriff's deputies, off-duty and unsanctioned per Gretna city officials, opened fire on LANG troops escorting refugees across from downtown New Orleans after the levees broke. National Guard troops, recently returned from a four month tour in Baluchistan, took heavy fire and responded; four dead and seventeen wounded, ten of them civilians fleeing New Orleans, were among the casualties.
"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for those soldiers," Ada Mae Gauthier said from President Gore's side. "If they'd been stuck away in some far-off land, the whole city might have up and died."
But it did not, and Gauthier, grandmother of seven, will be among the first residents of New Ninth.
"The city by the sea is lovely and lively again," one aide quipped. "We -- all of us -- have done a good thing, here."
This reporter concurs.
Do you utmost not to take this as fuel for the faction wars - we are in dire systemic and in my opinion regime crisis mode now. I see not only a broken system but a leadership cadre, both parties, that is shrugging and rolling with the changes.
A quick glance at the markets - debt deal good? Asia was hot this morning. Europe and USA markets now? Not even close. The manufacturing index is way down and way off expectation but that's okay -we're about to deep-six big gummint spending.
That sort of thing is supposed to... encourage direct private investment.
And because someone WILL ask - damn right, the Prez should have 14'd it. Instead, we will have a Star Chamber do all his 14-ing for him. And for the Republic. This is the singularly worst aspect of the deal; we're not only going with the Constitutional Option but in a way that the President doesn't get any power, responsibility or control over how that power is used. Which, last I checked, is pretty bad.
All told, complete financial chaos has been averted. For now. Ditto possible uprisings in the streets. However, I think we just got a deferment - and while I think playing for time is actually Obama's strongest card ... I think the trend (reaching all the way back to Bush v Gore) is not our (as in the country's) friend here.
I think we truly are putting off dealing with tough choices. Would having a bit of time to cool off and re-group and approach them more cogently help? Sure. But we have to do actually do that. Else we are just putting off a fight, as in a real fight... because near as I can tell, the country's not getting any nicer as a culture with each passing year.
At some point, reasoning and concessions for time (on the hopes the other side will regain its sanity) just aren't constructive. Sometimes, the other side is just that outraged, just that allergic to civility. Sometimes, you have to just have to fight - as in actually risk taking punches and punching back.
We wouldn't have to fight the next civil war, this week. And it was probably a low-probability scenario in any event, this week.
But I think the odds of real strife later on just shot up as the price of buying off the revolution today.