Washington Gridlock: The Triumph of Fantasy Over Reality

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This matters to our current politics because too many politicians are making decisions on the basis of a grand, utopian theory that they never can — or will — put into practice. They then use this theory to avoid a candid conversation about the messy choices governance requires. And this is why we have gridlock.

E.J. Dionne Jr.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-libertarianisms-achilles-heel/2013/06/09/4dfd3c9c-cf8c-11e2-8f6b-67f40e176f03_story.html?hpid=z2

Exactly right, and only a pissed off population can push these clowns to get off of their daydreaming and back to work.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 4 • Views: 1,688 • Replies: 12

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I am a bit surprised, good article.

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Blaming Libertarians for gridlock in congress is a bit like invading Iraq because of the 9/11 attacks. There are no genuine Libertarians in congress, and only a handful who even pose as Libertarians. The problem isn't that congressmen are wedded to utopian ideologies - most aren't wedded to any coherent ideology at all. The problem is that one party has no interest in governing. As a result, gridlock is inevitable. It's the party of bad ideas versus the party of no ideas.

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@joefromchicago,

The part where I agreed (I agree, I am not too deep) was this part,

Quote:

The strongest political support for a broad anti-statist libertarianism now comes from the tea party. Yet tea party members, as the polls show, are older than the country as a whole. They say they want to shrink government in a big way but are uneasy about embracing this concept when reducing Social Security and Medicare comes up. Thus do the proposals to cut these programs being pushed by Republicans in Congress exempt the current generation of recipients. There’s no way Republicans are going to attack their own base.

But this inconsistency (or hypocrisy) contains a truth: We had something close to a small-government libertarian utopia in the late 19th century and we decided it didn’t work. We realized that many Americans would never be able to save enough for retirement and, later, that most of them would be unable to afford health insurance when they were old. Smaller government meant that too many people were poor and that monopolies were formed too easily.

To me it comes down to this, if there was no need for government help, why would they do it? There was apparently a lot of people in need after the great depression and churches and private charities apparently left a big number of people starving.

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@joefromchicago,

I dont think that he is blaming liberals, he is blaming all. EJD tends not to throw stones at the other side of the aisle like other liberals do, preferring to talk about problems in his own house, but his close was a widening of the argument that came before it to a condemnation of all.

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@hawkeye10,

I don't think you understood the article. He said most of us at one time or another find allies with the Libertarians but now it is the tea party who find allies with them because both oppose big government. But then he went on to say, tea partiers oppose big government except when it comes "too close to home." The grand utopian theory he is talking about is small government and he said that is what is driving many of those today to make their decisions.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

I dont think that he is blaming liberals

Libertarian Not Equal

liberal

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@hawkeye10,

The problem is that the loud minority that votes and is active in both parties seem to believe in grand, utopian theory.

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bump

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there are other theorys

washington just reflects the will of the people, who dont agree and dont want to work together

the washington social scene is dead..they dont really know each other so they cant work together

we put inferior people in washington so we get inferior work

the corporate class corrupters want the partisan fighting as a diversion thus pay to put it on, because they walk away with the loot

the election process is now so expensive that these guys must spend much of the week finding money rather than working, so the work suffers

law is now so complex that only the experts understand it, citizens sent to washington for a few years have no hope of leading.

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The overarching problem is that congress is owned by lobbyists and until that situation is undone, nothing much can happen at all.

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@rosborne979,

rosborne979 wrote:

The overarching problem is that congress is owned by lobbyists and until that situation is undone, nothing much can happen at all.

you understand that a lot of people combine that problem with the fact that our representatives do none of the work in writing bills anymore. this is due to law being complex,lack of skill, lack of interest, and lack of time since so much is eaten up raising money. the work is done by staff with a lot of help from pros paid for by lobbyists. I think that not doing any of the law work anymore also frees up time for their kindergarten political games.

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@parados,

parados wrote:

The problem is that the loud minority that votes and is active in both parties seem to believe in grand, utopian theory.

Great observation, Parados.

A huge part of the problem is that the loud minority that rules each of the major parties seem to think that there are grand, utopian theories that will work.

One of the things we finally have to come to grips with is: WE MUST AGREE TO BE GOVERNED.

We have become a people who refuse to be governed...who piss and moan when we don't "get our way." But society requires accomodation...requires that there will be times where one side of an arbitrarily drawn aisle prevails over the other.

The only way civilization and society works is if WE AGREE TO BE GOVERNED...

...and of course, do the best we can to obtain the best governance possible.

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Washington Gridlock: The Triumph of Fantasy Over Reality

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