The State Of The Nation

The State Of The Nation

Devolving America — the Reagan Revolution

Gaius Pubius writes:

Paul Krugman, "America Goes Dark" (my emphasis):

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.

Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.

And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.

We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions . . . are no longer affordable.

This is the Reagan Revolution. I hate to be blunt, but anyone who voted twice for Reagan voted for this — the devolution of America.

It was always an ugly trade — Lee Atwater and his ilk shouting code at angry America, blissfully stoned on Dirty Harry and Death Wish fantasies. And America, tubed out on Judge Hardass, awash in happy congratulatory dreams, thinking itself bullet-proof (it still does), thinking it would never find itself cutting down the last tree on the island.

Those trees are being cut as we watch . . . and commandeered as escape pods by the only people with means to escape, the real beneficiaries of the Reagan Revolution. (I'm looking at you, Bob Rubin. You've got ilk too.)

The Professor again:

So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.

I wish I had something more positive to say this morning. We've written about this before, so it shouldn't be news.

Oh, and this is not the Professor's most depressing column in the last few weeks. That honor belongs to this one: "Who Cooked the Planet?".

Team Buddy Can You Spare Some Change?, you were put there to stop this stuff. Time to start stopping this stuff. It matters.