Monday, August 31, 2009

Siege warfare ...

I thought the hard part would be over when we got the Chimp to leave and kept McCain/Palin out of the White House. Looks like the hardest part is ahead of us. The Incomparable Krugman:

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No, I haven’t lost my mind. Nixon was surely the worst person other than Dick Cheney ever to control the executive branch.

But the Nixon era was a time in which leading figures in both parties were capable of speaking rationally about policy, and in which policy decisions weren’t as warped by corporate cash as they are now. America is a better country in many ways than it was 35 years ago, but our political system’s ability to deal with real problems has been degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder whether the country is still governable.

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I've wondered that for a long time.

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Given the combination of G.O.P. extremism and corporate power, it’s now doubtful whether health reform, even if we get it — which is by no means certain — will be anywhere near as good as Nixon’s proposal, even though Democrats control the White House and have a large Congressional majority.

And what about other challenges? Every desperately needed reform I can think of, from controlling greenhouse gases to restoring fiscal balance, will have to run the same ga[u]ntlet of lobbying and lies. [my ems]

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Our Congress is bought and paid for, and I don't have a clue how we can change that.

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