elfs | I am losing it, I totally am. (Reply)

Charles Krauthammer has one of those offensive, "ironic" columns today that makes me want to take him in all seriousness. In a sneer-filled column about how Congressfolks have to "satisfy the mob," he suggests sarcastically that:

What we need are a few exemplary hangings [for corporate executives]. Pick a few failed investment firms, lead their CEOs in chains through the canyons of Manhattan... Better still, precede the auto-da-fe -- fire is highly telegenic -- with 24-hour reality-TV coverage of their recantations, lamentations and final visits with the soon-to-be widowed. The ratings would dwarf "American Idol," and the ad revenue alone would make the perfect down payment on the $700 billion.

That's you and me he's talking about, the angry people who need to be given the bread and circuses that will hold us until Congress can get around to the serious business of saving the rich with our money.

Here's a thought: do you remember when the right exploded because Move On aired an ad in which a young mother held her child in her lap and said, "John McCain, you can't have my child?" The ad was clearly aimed at McCain's then-recent lament that implementing the draft would be politically difficult to acheive these days.

Well, guess what? Our government has successfully co-opted your and my childrens' sweat and labor for the next half-century, at least. They did this by allowing irresponsibility in every layer of the financial market. Why aren't we all utterly furious? Have we all absorbed the message that we're powerless in the face of this crap?

Daniel Larison at the American Conservative: McCain will have us on tenterhooks on a daily basis wondering whether he will call for impeaching the Supreme Court or bombing Uruguay and he will denounce anyone who questions his proposal as a selfish and corrupt villain, and while Obama might adopt equally awful views he will do so more slowly and allow the rest of us time to organize opposition and rational counterarguments that might actually prevail.
Meanwhile, David Brooks is totally high!: If McCain is elected, he will retain his instinct for the hard challenge. With that Greatest Generation style of his, he will run the least partisan administration in recent times. He is not a sophisticated conceptual thinker, but he is a good judge of character. He is not an organized administrator, but he has become a practiced legislative craftsman. He is, above all — and this is completely impossible to convey in the midst of a campaign — a serious man prone to serious things.