Taking the long view

Within the past 12 hours, both of my kids have asked me to explain the "fiscal cliff" (and doesn't the need to put that in quotation marks just about sum it up?) to them and in the course of explaining it, I'm finding it impossible to avoid using the phrase "because the current Republican party is insane" repeatedly.

I remember reading a book by the conservative former National Lampoon editor PJ O'Rourke where he said "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.”  Clearly, much of the dysfunction of the past few years has been the result of a clear Republican strategy of weakening the Federal government in particular but all governments in general. I'm starting to wonder though if the current lunacy is a strategy or an unintended consequence.

You can argue it either way. You can say, oh poor John Boehner (Republican Speaker of the House), he can't control his caucus and he can't get anything done. And he does seem like a sad, pathetic figure, and that's how he's portrayed in the media and the public's view of Republicans and especially congressional Republicans is very negative.

But maybe it's all an act. Maybe the bigger idea is a game of chicken, where the Republicans do everything they can to screw things up in every way with the hope that they can make the whole thing collapse before they're run out of town. It's not hard to see why they'd do that. They know they're losing the demographic battle and there's only a certain point to which they can succeed in trying to keep Democratic types from being allowed to vote. It's just a matter of time.

So why not throw the Hail Mary pass (a phrase which either originated with Notre Dame in the 30's or with Roger Staubach and the Dallas Cowboys in 1978) and see if you can just blow everything up and leave the Democrats presiding over nothing? Yeah, it's kind of a nihilist approach, but that's entirely consistent with their behavior.