Memory and Accountability

Now that the double-dip recession is apparently a reality, is Obama and his base going to pretend that no one saw it coming and that nothing else could have really been done?

Are they going to act as if two quite well-known and articulate Nobels in Economics (Krugman and Stiglitz) weren't shouting from the rooftops that this is exactly what would happen if, in a moment when he had a full mandate for sweeping change from the American people, Obama were to (as he did) tailor his stimulus program to the liking of a Republican opposition that was never going to give him votes by making it both a) smaller than it needed to be b) and more dependent than is should have been on stimulus-inefficient tax cuts rather than infrastructure spending?

My guess is that the spin is already underway and that large numbers of the Obama base will swallow without thinking twice.

This is the nature of American public discourse in our age. No history and, therefore no accountability.

William Kristol and the Neo-cons, criminally wrong on everything (in a very Nuremburg trials kind of way) continue on their merry way, pronouncing on foreign policy on Network TV as often as they please with absolutely no fear of having rotten fruit or eggs thrown in their face.

In Zombie nation we have long-since internalized the golden rule: to be serious and grown-up is to never question those those above you in the power hierarchy.