juxtablog

As long as people like Mr. Armey, Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay were out of power, they could run on promises to eliminate vast government waste that existed only in the public’s imagination – all those welfare queens driving Cadillacs. But once in power, they couldn’t deliver.

    That’s why government by the radical right has been an utter failure even on its own terms: the government hasn’t shrunk. Federal outlays other than interest payments and defense spending are a higher percentage of G.D.P. today than they were when Mr. Armey wrote his book: 14.8 percent in fiscal 2006, compared with 13.8 percent in fiscal 1995.

    Unable to make good on its promises, the G.O.P., like other failed revolutionary movements, tried to maintain its grip by exploiting its position of power. Friends were rewarded with patronage: Jack Abramoff began building his web of corruption almost as soon as Republicans took control. Adversaries were harassed with smear campaigns and witch hunts: Congress spent six years and many millions of dollars investigating a failed land deal, and Bill Clinton was impeached over a consensual affair.

    But it wasn’t enough. Without 9/11, the Republican revolution would probably have petered out quietly, with the loss of Congress in 2002 and the White House in 2004. Instead, the atrocity created a window of opportunity: four extra years gained by drowning out unfavorable news with terror alerts, starting a gratuitous war, and accusing Democrats of being weak on national security.

    Yet the Bush administration failed to convert this electoral success into progress on a right-wing domestic agenda. The collapse of the push to privatize Social Security recapitulated the failure of the Republican revolution as a whole. Once the administration was forced to get specific about the details, it became obvious that private accounts couldn’t produce something for nothing, and the public’s support vanished.

    In the end, Republicans didn’t shrink the government. But they did degrade it. Baghdad and New Orleans are the arrival destinations of a movement based on deep contempt for governance.

Source: Paul Krugman | A Failed Revolution

 We can’t allow ourselves to get to the point of not feeling something when looking at a child who has been injured in war! We should all feel something. Whether it’s anger because our tax dollars helped pay for the destruction, or because we have a child and can’t imagine telling him/her that there’s nothing we can do. The truth is that it’s okay to cry. In fact, it’s healthy. We should never allow ourselves to stop feeling for others. We should never allow ourselves to judge each other over religion or ethnicity or skin tone. It’s not “un-American” or “un-Democratic” to care about the Iraqis. It’s allowing ourselves to be human. It’s about understanding that it could have been any one of us. We could have been born anywhere. We are not in control of our ethnicity. But, we are privileged to live in America. Let us never forget that. And privilege confers responsibility.

    Alaa’ left Florida a little over a year ago. Since then, a civil war has broken out. Many children were not as lucky as Alaa’; many are dead. Many families have been destroyed. We can attempt to justify our invasion of Iraq, but I think it takes a bigger person to admit being wrong. And, what I think makes our country so great is that we have the ability to dissent. We can stand up for what we think is right.

    I have been asked by many skeptics if I think it would have been better with Saddam. They don’t bother to mention that the US supported Saddam right through the worst of his atrocities. And I doubt they complained about the policy of “support for Saddam” at the time. I’m not an oracle, but I think a fair response is that it would have been better for Alaa’. It would have been better if her home had not been hit by US tank rounds, which took the lives of her two brothers.

    Alaa’ is young. Fortunately, she may not remember all that took place on that horrific day. She won’t remember having a tea party with her siblings as her home crumbled, burying her brothers in the rubble. But, she’ll always have the scars. She’ll see pictures to remind her of her two brothers that she never had the opportunity to know. And, ten years from now, my children will see pictures in their history books and only read text that whitewashes our role in the destruction. How the story is told depends on us, and it needs to be one of truth.

Source: Ashley Severance | No More Victims Group Continues to Aid Iraqi Children