Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Samhain Moon<\/p>\n
Read an article on how to respond to the shutdown. \u00a0Talk about it, the article said. \u00a0So I will.<\/p>\n
1. \u00a0How can a Republican branded political cult conspire to bring the world’s most vibrant economy to its knees? Pretty easily apparently. \u00a0By easily I mean with no conscience for the real world fall out from their racist (stop this black president) and poorly conceived analysis. \u00a0The Affordable Health Care Act is not socialist. \u00a0I wish it were. \u00a0But it just isn’t. \u00a0It’s a market based, Republican conceived, Massachusetts advanced plan that goes about 1\/3 of the way toward what Dave Durenberger (no commie) calls an American health care system.<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0Appropriation of the word patriot. \u00a0While driving yesterday, I passed a guy with a sign on his car that read Premier House Inspections. \u00a0Taped to his back window was a red white and blue sign that read Tea Party Patriot. \u00a0The implication of the word patriot here, just like the wearing of American flag decals and the Love it or Leave it bumper stickers of the Vietnam era, represents a noxious form of civic self-righteousness. \u00a0We alone love America. We alone understand the Constitution. \u00a0We alone have the self-anointed right to do whatever we want in the pursuit of our pure and clean ideas.<\/p>\n
No. \u00a0Arrogation of \u00a0virtue by claiming it is the same as a criminal saying, “I’m innocent.” As a pedophile claiming, “But I love children.” As an evangelical’s “You must be born again.” Bold letters on must in this sentence. \u00a0Virtue is not known by words but by deeds.<\/p>\n
Threatening the economy and a system of government (which is in the constitution) that has served us well is not patriotism. \u00a0It is hubris masquerading as certainty.<\/p>\n
3. \u00a0On this last point about our system of government. \u00a0Holding legislation hostage to matters necessary for the continuation of the government’s functioning violates the constitutional separation of powers, the contract with the American people who expect their congress to resolve public disputes, not create them as well as the tradition of our form of governance–tradition being a hallmark favorite of conservatives by definition.<\/p>\n
4. \u00a0Final point. \u00a0Conservative. \u00a0I find a lot in the conservative philosophical position to commend it. \u00a0Retaining that which works is a key to civilization’s progress. \u00a0Not the only key, surely, but definitely one of them. \u00a0The world of religion and art, both containers for tradition, have been important to me my whole life, in particular for the reservoir of human wisdom and insight they preserve. \u00a0Likewise the conservative insistence on justifying a break with what’s working makes sense to me. \u00a0To paraphrase Carl Sagan extraordinary measures require extraordinary rationales.<\/p>\n
The conservative-liberal dialectic is a necessary driver of human social life and it is<\/strong> a dialectic. \u00a0That is, the juice is in the tension between the two, the vibration that occurs when make it new, let’s just get on with solving the problem confronts we’ve always done it this way, let’s stop and think about it. \u00a0That tension is a good thing.<\/p>\n Radical positioning on either end of the dialectic snaps the tension and destroys the useful energy created as these opposing inclinations tussle. \u00a0Doing that requires an extraordinary rationale. \u00a0Not liking a President and wanting to stop legislation already law are not extraordinary save in one regard, their level of stupidity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Samhain Moon Read an article on how to respond to the shutdown. \u00a0Talk about it, the article said. \u00a0So … Continue reading Hubris Masquerading as Certainty<\/span>