Bob Herbert: Policy at Its Worst

[unhappycamper]

Policy at Its Worst
by Bob Herbert
Published on Saturday, October 9, 2010 by the New York Times

We can go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and threaten to blow Iran off the face of the planet. We can conduct a nonstop campaign of drone and helicopter attacks in Pakistan and run a network of secret prisons around the world. We are the mightiest nation mankind has ever seen.

But we can't seem to build a railroad tunnel to carry commuters between New Jersey and New York.

The United States is not just losing its capacity to do great things. It's losing its soul. It's speeding down an increasingly rubble-strewn path to a region where being second rate is good enough.

~snip~

The project had been in the works for 20 years, and ground had already been broken when the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, rejected the project on Thursday, saying that his state could not afford its share of the costs. Extreme pressure is being exerted from federal officials and others to get Mr. Christie to change his mind, but, as of now, the project is a no-go.

This is a railroad tunnel we're talking about. We're not trying to go to the Moon. This is not the Manhattan Project. It's a railroad tunnel that's needed to take people back and forth to work and to ease the pressure on the existing tunnel, a wilting two-track facility that's about 100 years old. What is the matter with us?

[ixion]

1. "What is the matter with us?"

Well, for starters, we're not too bright, collectively speaking.

Given that, there is a constant propensity towards:
- Violence
- Corruption
- Graft
- Fraud
- Theft
- Sloth and/or Apathy
- Other generalized stupidities

If we lost our soul, we lost it long ago. Maybe we lost it when we attempted genocide on Native Americans. Maybe we lost it when we dropped atomic weapons on Japan. Maybe we lost it when we slaughtered millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians.

Or maybe we never really had a soul at all. :(

[Lorien]

9. We had more of one a few decades ago. Now neither party challenges the status quo

and both seem to think that spending trillions to kill brown people is more noble that giving a sick American health care, innovating with green energy projects, educating our children...or building a tunnel.

[democrank]

2. Good question.

What is the matter with us?

[tilsammans]

3. Christie's "bumbling and stumbling," indeed.

My hope is that his stance backfires, big time.

But I wish more of the electorate would get a clue.

[ThomWV]

4. Thank you. Very nice article. K&R

[spanone]

5. we are a nation of warmongers...it's what we do best

we kill people...proudly

[n2doc]

6. And if for some reason somebody blew up the existing tunnel

We would still be talking about replacing it a decade later. We have become paralyzed with hate and fear.

[COLGATE4]

7. What's the matter with us is that political ideology now trumps

everything else. Public be damned. Voters be damned. Needs be damned. I'm going to use my power to push my particular political agenda and you can all kiss my ass. Christie is just the latest proponent of this new school of thought.

[Greyhound]

8. Destroying the infrastructure is essential to conquering any nation.

The U.S. is capable of sustaining itself and is therefore a threat to the power they are gathering.

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning" - Warren Buffet

[mdmc]

10. ..