This weekend I posted some reflections on the remarkable reversal of our soi-disant conservatives from, um, conserving stuff to a program that puts widespread waste front and center. It occurs to me that another equally striking new Republican theme is a truly bizarre attitude to time, specifically that we should live as though it stops now.
All sorts of things that will happen in the future have just been taken off the table. Planet getting too hot? Well, this summer was pretty bad, but the air conditioning worked, and it isn’t like south Florida will be underwater for my vacation this winter. This year’s drought-ravaged corn harvest is poking food prices up a little, but I didn’t see any lack of steaks at the supermarket today. People under 55 won’t be retiring for a decade or so; why are you looking at their medical care way out there? Workforce now in school won’t be up to the job when they graduate? Well, none of them can be of any use to us this week, and teaching them hits my tax bill right now.
Perhaps this is what you get when old men take over, especially old rich men. The crowd at the Republican convention really has nothing to gain from being conservative: what’s best for them is to just use up everything quickly. (And, of course, for some of them an imminent rapture would seem to make thinking about the future not only silly but impious…)
kevo says
Positing the above, there is a simultanious move in an opposite direction regarding one of our oldest institutions – the Post Office! While the powerful white men want us to stay here in a variety of examples above, they are demanding the Post Office fund imaginary future employees to the tune of 5 billion dollars.
Let’s be direct – these power brokers for the Republican brand are all about doing bad things to the rest of us!
H says
The Republicans are pretty much all about protecting existing wealth. The Democrats a little less so.
Instructive in looking at the Republicans is Tainter’s work on the collapse of complex civilizations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Tainter
The Republican attack on the Post Office is meant to undermine the legitimacy and local perception of the Federal government. While there is a local Federal office that actually provides useful service on a daily basis it is hard to get folks to believe that the U.S. government is a totally useless thing (except for funding the armed forces which are useful for overseas corporate support).
The Post Office is authorized in the Constitution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause
One might wonder why this creation of the founders, especially Ben Franklin, is so despised by the soi-disant (gotta love that phrase) conservatives of today.
CharlesWT says
The Constitution allowed for, but did not require that a post office be created.
Herschel says
Note that each of the powers invested in Congress by Article I Section 8, including establishing post offices and post roads, has been extensively exercised. Note also that the Framers put the post office clause behind the powers to tax, borrow, regulate commerce, and coin money, but ahead of declaring war, raising armies, and maintaining a navy.
CharlesWT says
The bill containing the future funding requirement was passed by a 410 to 20 vote in the House and a voice vote in the Senate in 2006.
npm says
When it comes to budgetary discussions, the rhetorical positions typically reverse. (And yes, I’m aware that the policy actions often do not match the rhetoric).
From http://andrewgbiggs.blogspot.com/2008/06/social-security-and-global-warming.html:
“Stereotypically, at least, those on the right claim there is an imminent crisis in entitlements that should have been solved yesterday, while arguing for caution regarding global warming, and waiting until a consensus is reached. Those on the left do the opposite, mentioning the long time horizon and considerable uncertainty regarding Social Security projections but citing the precautionary principle in arguing for immediate action on climate change.”
Barry says
And if you ever examined the likely ‘worst case’ for Social Security (for example), you’d find that it’s a problem, not a crisis. While the opposite is true for global warming.
And that’s before we get into the credibility of people in these debates.
Confuse Ed says
For the life of me, I can’t understand why this isn’t the theme of the campaign. To lead us out of hard times, do you want the guy who came from nothing and worked his way up to the very top by building communities and coalitions to make a better world, or do you want the guy who came from everything and stayed on top by tearing down communities and businesses to make a contribution to his pocketbook?
dave schutz says
Obama did not come from nothing. He was raised by his mother, who made an unusual marriage choice, but was herself relatively comfortable middle class, and then by his grandparents. He went to Punahou, for Godsake! and whiled away his high school years with the affluent stoners there. Not to mention Harvard Law. This election reminds me a lot of British elections where loud calls for class war come from the Labor candidate, who himself went to the same swell schools as did his Conservative rivals.
Wonks Anonymous says
An aristocracy is typically run by old men concerned with preserving things as they are for their heirs. Let’s blame Jefferson’s attack on primogeniture.
JMG says
Yes, I stole a line from somewhere and put it on every blog post:
“Let’s live on the planet as if we intend to stay.”
Foster Boondoggle says
I’m sure much of this is the aging plutocracy at work. But some of it comes from evangelical convictions that god gave us the earth and everything in it to use as we see fit and also that the rapture near (as always), so we might as well use everything up while we can. The second conviction certainly motivates short-run thinking, while the first is a convenient cover for “I’m gonna get whatever I can now” and to hell with the next generation. Remember Reagan’s Interior Secretary James “End Times” Watt? He’s the patriarch of the current GOP’s fervor for unrestrained resource exploitation.