E Pluribus Unum

by shep

My, my, blogging on the internets has been good for Joe Klein. First, he acknowledges that, unlike Republicans, Democrats actually have a reason to be outraged at how they’ve been treated politically:

"It's obvious that the current level of vitriol on the left is a reaction to nearly twenty years of sewage emanating from Rush et al. ...The intemperance on the left has three other sources (1) justifiable fury over the Bush adminstration (2) justifiable fury over the way the media treated Clinton and, to a certain extent, Bush and (3) ideologues of any sort tend to be obnoxious."

Today, in a Hardball segment that should have been titled, “Republicanism Destroys America,” he says: (paraphrasing from memory) Republicans’ problem starts with Reagan and the belief that government is part of the problem, not part of the solution. If you don’t believe in government, you aren’t going to do policy carefully…,” (can’t wait for the transcript).

(To be fair to Klein, he really began the argument back in February.)

Andrew Sullivan chimes in with some crazy blather about how conservatives can only do small government, though I have no idea upon what he’s basing that silly observation.

Not surprisingly, the point goes right over Andrea Mitchell’s head and Mathew’s pumpkin (after the twin journalistic horror shows of Mathews and Russert, I propose that we start measuring the proportions of all prospective journalists’ noggins and screening out anyone who’s head looks like it should be attached to a rope and a pole.)

Anyway, as someone who swore long ago never to vote for any politician who denigrated the institution in which he sought office, or anyone who tried to bribe my vote with a tax cut, Klein’s point seems rather obvious: Republicans can’t govern because they don’t believe in government. The fact he’s considered a liberal and is practically alone among his establishment peers in this tragically belated revelation, tells you everything you need to know about how we got to this train wreck that is the natural product of Republican government.

Liberals saw it coming. At least Klein has finally figured out how it happened.