Squawking Crisis Junkies War Against Our Future

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-becker/37400/squawking-crisis-junkies-war-against-our-future

We are beset by two teams of crisis junkies playing a game of chicken for self-serving ends. Big surprise -- Washington shadow boxing rains down serious injury far and wide, lately undermining what's left of American exceptionalism: one-time stellar credit-worthiness. Default threats, though averted, shake up bond vigilantes, adding to our profligacy as failed, nation-building empire (that won't use taxes to fund our own invasions), plus infamous slayer of our own affluence (bad taxation, NAFTA, outsourcing, credit defaults and more).

Only worse than the farce of a manufactured debt crisis, signifying a nation crashing into itself, is the exhibition of shrill ideologues hitting the gas pedal.

That's more inevitable when an elected president abandons his vision (and supporters) for chronic crisis management. Today's dire "deadlines" fabricate "wins" that buoy up and speak to vacuous leadership. Unfocused regimes not only get ambushed but end up besieged, as Obama today wards off blows from friends and foes alike: "What do you stand for? What hill will you die on"? When a president can’t rule his own destiny, or the nation's, unelected powers rush in to fill that void. The usual suspects then make key decisions unimpeded by oversight, namely: investment bankers, corporate chieftains, advisers and lobbyists, land and resource owners, the Pentagon, and dominant foreigners.

Ironically, the defensive crisis junkie-in-chief founds his billion-dollar re-election on the glory -- say what? -- of fulsome defense of the status quo. Don't wait for "systemic" or "reform" to reappear for Obama's big push will limp home (read: squeaking out a win) by riding today's distrusted, unpopular government. Victory is simply defined by holding your own, the White House and Democratic Senate, perhaps slicing a half dozen GOP seats. Obama's audacity of hope shrinks, like the vitality of his government, to the urgency of survival.

More at the link --

[dissidentboomer]

1. Yep