The other day this idea popped into my head and it hasn't gone away, sticking with me like a hang nail that just won't drop. After sharing this idea with my wife, she thinks I'm insane (not the first this has happened:)) Yet I can't help but think that it's the best and only solution for our nation during these troubled times.
I think that all liberals, progressives, Democrats, RINOs, and anyone who isn't "pure" should completely and utterly capitulate to the right wing extremists that are currently running the show that is the conservative base in this country.
I mean it. I'm not kidding. All of us who have been trying to reason with these people should hand the keys over to the Apocalyptic Cult/20th Century Europe Authoritarian Regime (copyright: Mike Lofgren and henceforth named Lofgren's Syndrome) and let them run the show for whatever amount of time they see fit to fix this country. The way I see things, this is the only way that we are ever going to break this nonproductive statelemate. I've examined the potential outcomes and here is why I truly think this is the best course of action.
The first possible outcome (very unlikely) is that most or all of their policies and ideas will work. If so, that means a stronger country, right? So, that's a good thing. Unlike their mindset, I'm not so filled with hubris to think that there is no possible way any of what they are proposing will work. Never say never, obviously...
More likely of an outcome, however, is that a few proposals might work to a certain degree but most will fall short of fail outright. At this point, we would see some cracks in their ideological armor and some leaders would likely cave and ask for our help. This is when we would need to stay strong and refuse to help. My hope here is that they would adapt and change, thus dispensing with their intransigence forever. Some, of course, would not admit defeat (due to Lofgren's Syndrome) but this would likely result in some infighting and some sort of breakdown in power which would also result in change. Like the first outcome, this is also a good thing.
Given the fact, though, that so many suffer from severe cases of Lofgren's Syndrome, the most likely outcome, in my opinion, would be disaster. Their eternal pride would reach to a long and painful height before their massive fall. This is why my wife thinks I'm nuts because our country would likely fall apart. But, honestly, this is the only way to be rid of this mindset forever. Faced with the stark reality of a country in ruins, Lofgren's Syndrome, like polio, would be eradicated from our country forever. The rest of us would pick up the pieces and finally be able to solve the problems of reality.
Obviously, destroying something in order to save it is somewhat insane but I don't see any other recourse. Right now, we are wasting a lot of time and there really is no other logical choice. You can't reason with someone who is a true believer. The only way to do so is to do to them what Gorbachev did to us in the late 1980s...deprive them of an enemy. What ever will they do if they have no one to prove wrong and no argument to win?
They'll have to actually govern.
10 comments:
During these bleak times, it probably feels better to imagine the right governing and failing rather than defend the guy and the ideas you voted for (like Solyndra).
Just a few years ago, what was needed to break the stalemate was electing The One. Now what is needed is the complete opposite?
"Stronger country" has too many subjective definitions to be accurately quantified.
If the Republicans have their way the United States will be turned into a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred Banana Republic. There will small, wealthy gated enclaves that are guarded by armed militias, while the rest of the country is poor, dirty and living in squalor. The air and water will be filthy, there will be frequent power outages, and people will be dying of starvation and tropical diseases in the streets.
It's ironic that as countries like India and China are using the technology that we developed to improve the quality of their people's lives, our standard of living is slipping as more and more of the wealth is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
We are slowly trading economic places with Mexico. It's getting so bad here that illegal immigrants are going back home. And it's not because Barack Obama screwed the pooch. It's because some nitwit started two wars and cut taxes at the same time, then let a gang of thieves steal all our money and houses.
But your idea is wrong, Mark. The Republicans are dead-enders. They are a decided minority, and over the next decade or so demographics will ultimately defeat them. They've been trying for years to rule from the minority, with strategies such as the 60-vote rule in the Senate and the voter suppression program that Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzalez had going during the Bush administration.
All we need to do is wait them out. They know they are doomed -- the ever more rabid and vitriolic mindset is a symptom of a group that knows its numbers are dwindling and ultimately faces extinction. Hang on for 10 or 15 years, and all the old racist windbags will die off or succumb to the full effects of their early-onset Alzheimers. Or -- and I truly hope this is the case -- the Republicans will see their numbers sliding, and their policies will return to the semblance of rationality they had thirty or forty years ago.
Either way, problem solved.
Unlike their mindset, I'm not so filled with hubris to think that there is no possible way any of what they are proposing will work.
Damn dude! I was drinking when I read that. You owe me a new keyboard!
What the Mouse said.
blk, your solution involves the people on the other side dying? Wow.
Glad we were able to ship out that voter suppression program in 2010.
Know anyone who has been to China recently? Or do you share Tom Friedmans love affair with China perhaps? A steel worker I know at the gym (and we all love "this guy I know at the gym" stories on here) just got back from a small town west of Shanghai. He said you can't drink the water there, the smog is terrible and the people who live in these high rises have a ring of trash around their buildings because they just throw their trash out the windows of their residences.
It's all Bushs fault. Good campaign slogan. GWB was so good at doing X, and your guy is so terrible at undoing X.
The nice thing about being over here is that we don't have to wait - the results of your policies are beign displayed (Solyndra).
Here's my prediction- the republicans will see their numbers slide, then a few years after that the democrats will see their numbers slide, then a few years after that the republicans will see their numbers slide, and so on. That's the pattern.
6 senate democrats have gone on record now opposing your latest job bill (Mark Begich, Jim Webb, Mary Landrieu, Barbara Mikulski, Robert Casey and Joe Manchin), which is so urgent it hasn't even been received by the senate yet.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/09/obama-jobs-speech-right-now-dick-durbin.html
Are the people you voted for holding up the bill in the senate? That would be obstructionist! That's not a win-win politically!
If you think hard enough, you can see the connection between Solyndra and China. China's investment in solar energy beat us and that's why Solyndra collapsed. It's not the paranoid conspiracy theories running around the right wingoshphere these days. How's GM doing these days, last in line? I hear they are offering bonuses to employees because they are doing so well. If you are going to talk about government investments that didn't work well, include the ones that did so we are know you are honest.
So it's okay to give more than half a billion dollars of taxpayer money to a company that has already been defeated before it's started?
Just… wow…
And you wonder why we find your designs on our wallets threatening…
"Faced with the stark reality of a country in ruins"
Isn't the USA faced with that right now?
Is Greece faced with it right now?
Was the USSR facing it in the late '80s?
Ironically, I just finished 'The Iron Heel' by Jack London. (written in 1902-ish) He was an avowed Communist, and he predicted the exact same end to capitalism as you just did.
I doubt we will be in ruins, Jax. Since Greece in the EU, I think some sort of accommodation will be worked out. And the USSR isn't in ruins especially now that it is being run by the mob.
Good choice on the book but I'm not predicting and end to capitalism. It's thriving quite well in the world and the reason we are having the problems we are having is because of it. And that's not necessarily a bad thing!
Fair enough. What if Greece wasn't in the EU as of tomorrow? Then what?
What if Greece defaults on its debt? The current government bond sales predict a 100% chance of Greece defaulting within the next 2 years.
Run by the mob is better than 'in ruins'? You may be right about that. Especially if you are part of the mob.
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