Michael B. Duff

I really shouldn’t read Balloon Juice first thing in the morning. Fine to have it in the regular rotation but I should probably warm up with stuff I agree with first.

I was struck by this post, Listen all y’all, it’s sabotage which repeats Steve Bensen’s allegation that the Republicans are trying to deliberately sabotage the economy so they can blame Obama for it in 2012.

I already knew that Republicans lived in a self-referential world of conspiracy theories and circular logic. Nice to see the Left is keeping up.

You see how brilliant this is psychologically? If you’re convinced that spending cuts are bad for the economy, Republican attempts to fix the problem will be indistinguishable from sabotage.

If you’re convinced that tax cuts hurt the economy and reward the rich, any attempt to cut taxes will be indistinguishable from sabotage.

It’s not enough to admit that Republicans and Democrats subscribe to two diametrically-opposed economic theories. Democrats are so steeped in Keynesian orthodoxy they assume that even Republicans believe it, and are deliberately sabotaging the economy with spending and tax cuts.

You have to assume that your position is so perfect, so self-evidently correct, that no sane person could deny it.

I’ve heard this argument before. From Ayn Rand. Objectivists (at least the ones I argued with) believe that there can be no principled objection to capitalism. The benefits of capitalism are so overwhelming and so obvious, anyone who opposes it is, by definition, evil.

No rational personal can deny the benefits of capitalism, so anyone who denies them is doing so because they hate life itself. They “hate the good for being good” and should be judged accordingly. So ultimately, the only question worth debating with a Progressive is, “Why do you hate life?”

How amusing to see this same logic employed by the Left. They can’t just sit down with the Republicans and assume they’re serious. There can be no honest objection to Keynesianism, so this has to be some kind of PLOT to frame Obama and seize the White House!

Good job, guys. Ayn Rand would be proud.

I’m appalled by how narrow and petty this world view is. I knew this Red/Blue thing was out of control, but I hadn’t come face to face with the psychology of it before. Republicans and Democrats are so trapped in this paradigm, so steeped in their eternal turf war that they can’t imagine a bigger world — a world where tax increases drive capital to emerging countries and government borrowing increases the interest payment on the debt we already have.

Their myopia is staggering. Like a pair of boxers so intent on their opponents that they can’t see the stadium burning down around them.

Look around, guys. The world is bigger than your boxing match, and if you don’t come to your senses and start playing like grownups, the ref is gonna break it up.