Madness

Will somebody pinch me and tell me that all this is just a dream? I'm talking about the very real threat that by the end of the week, a tribe of lunatics called the Tea Party in the U.S. House of Representatives will have succeeded in their threat to shut down the government of this country, solely because they cannot induce the (relatively) sane lawmakers in the Democratic Party to buckle under to their bluster and threats.

At issue, of course, is the Obama budget. Tea Party people are demanding that the Senate Democrats bend over and spread 'em, i.e., accept the cuts the TP has mandated or nothing. If the Democrats refuse to be bullied, the government gets shut down. It's a wonder that these people have any support at all from the public, but amazingly they do. I mean, how can anybody get behind the notions of such a transparent imbecile as Michelle Bachman is completely beyond me. But there it is. But I'm not alone. In a recent piece in Firedog Lake, one similarly minded writer observes:

With the exception of the McCarthy era, I can’t remember a time when the facts pointed so clearly to mass public hysteria, denial and delusion among those who are driving government policies.

We’re going through a period of dangerous craziness that can severely damage the country and harm millions of people. Along with worsening air and water quality, women and children’s health care, education and research and dozens of other worthwhile services, these idiots would even cut funding for poison control.

It’s time to stop listening to these close-minded, authoritarian bullies. It should be obvious to any but the most severely deluded that what their followers in Congress and the states are doing is nuts.

The comparison with the McCarthy era is apt. We're in a period of mass public hysteria. Not a doubt about it. Stay tuned. Disasters loom on the horizon.