Dead cherry blossom trees litter the bleak landscape. Trash blows through L’Enfant’s once beautiful boulevards, now strewn with the detritus of democracy, scraps of the original Constitution, corroded White House ID cards, stacks of worthless bills tumbling out of the Treasury Department.
The BlackBerrys that were pried from the hands of White House employees in 2013 are now piled up on the Potomac as a flood barrier against the ever-rising tide from melting ice caps. Their owners, unable to check their messages, went insane long ago.
Because there was no endgame, the capital’s hunger games ended in a gray void. Because there was no clean bill, now there is only a filthy stench. Because there was no wisdom, now there is only rot. The instigators, it turned out, didn’t even know what they were arguing for. Macho thrusts and feints, competing to win while the country lost.
Thomas Jefferson’s utopia devolved into Ted Cruz’s dystopia.
Law and order broke down as police, who were not getting paid, eventually decided to stay home. The fanatics barricaded in the Capitol dug in, determined to tear down what their idols, the founding fathers, had built. Darkness soon devoured the rest of the country.
Whose to blame you may ask? Who do you think?
A gaunt man and sickly boy, wrapped in blue tarps, trudge toward the blighted spot that was once the World War II monument, scene of the first shutdown skirmishes. They know they may not survive the winter.
“How did this happen, Papa?” the boy asks.
“Americans had been filled with existential dread since the 9/11 attacks, but they didn’t realize the real danger was coming from inside the government,” the man says. “It started very small with a petty fight over a six-week spending bill but quickly mushroomed out of control.”
“Whose fault was it, Papa?” the boy presses.
The man tries to explain: “The Grand Old Party, the proud haven of patriots who believed in a strong national security and fiscal responsibility, was infected with a mutant form of ideology. It was named the Sarahcuda Strain after the earliest carrier. Remember when you saw that old science fiction movie, ‘I Am Legend’? A scientist described the virus that burned through civilization as being like ‘a very fast car driven by a very bad man.’ That’s what happened: In the infected Tea Party politicians, brain function decreased and social de-evolution occurred. They began ignoring their basic survival instincts.
“It’s hard to believe now, but they were fixated on stopping an effort to get health care to those who couldn’t afford it. It eventually led them to destroy all the things they said they held most dear.”
The boy is confused. “They killed America because they didn’t care about keeping Americans alive?” he asks.
"The Sarahcuda Strain," I love it!
But yes in the final analysis the young boy's question is absolutely accurate.
I don't always enjoy Maureen Dowd, but this is a must read and it does a pretty great job of putting a rather ridiculous conflict into a context that is both entertaining as well as informative. .
Now Rafael Cruz is saying this has not hurt the repubs. at all. Well, he is correct, their image has been getting worse with each of the last 5 years since they do nothing but obstruct. They should have an intervention to put Boehner into booze rehab. Little Johnny McCain needs helo with his gambling addiction since he even gambles during serious discussions about all this BULL SHIT they have caused. If Palin was of any importance whatsoever (which she is NOT) she needs commitment to a mental ward.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that Mitt Romney's own son said that Mitt didn't' really want to become President, which helped produced the wan and weary campaign he produced.
DeleteBut, now, Ann Romney pops up this week to say that, under Mitt, there would be no ACA. She ignores the fact that the ACA is modeled on Mitt's very own Massachusetts Health Plan, which has been in effect for seven years. He didn't stop it then -- he planned to run on it in 2008, only then the Democrats made it into a nation a law in 2010. What to do! He threw away the one reason anyone might want him to be President.
The GOP deserves such candidates, and its tea bag insurrectionists. Our nation doesn''t deserve either.
Rafael Cruz's ability to analyze political situations is only slightly better than an earthworm's.
DeleteBut there's no excuse for Rafael Cruz -- he had eastern education, the best that his affirmative action admission could provide, but all he's got out of it is how to be a snake oil salesman. And the kinds of people who used to head for the county fair at this time of year, to listen to flim-flam artists, are right in line to fall for Sr. Cruz and his Latin charms.
DeleteCruz has zero charm, is not attractive in appearance, has no common sense and is a Cuban/Canadian! And, he assuredly is NOT sexy as are many of the Latin males! I don't find him attractive at all and feel sorry for his wife and any other women he's been with!
DeleteI agree with you 1:05 PM. Cruz gives me the creeps. The only photo I like of him is the one where he has his disgusting head tucked and tilted, flirting with Palin and she coyly has her eyes closed. Sickening but at the same time, it's what I expect from both of them. Creeps. Presidential? What a joke.
DeleteI have refrained from commenting on Raphael Eduardo Cruz's appearance because I was afraid it might sound racist. I am not racist. I find Hispanic men handsome and sexy but not ted Cruz. He just looks like a snake oil salesman: smarmy, self-enamored, deceptive and dangerous.
Deletei so miss Molly Ivins. she would have been having a great time with all the latest in Texas - and we poor readers are all the poorer without all the laughs she would have given us.
ReplyDeleteTry reading www.juanitajean.com and www.margaretandhelen.com. Both are great.
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DeleteThanks JO. They have been added to my favorites list. O was born and raised in Texas - a dyed in the wool Texas Democrat. If Wendy Davis is elected gov of Texas, I just might move back to Texas.
DeleteWhat Palin also needs is a sense, a deep, visceral sense, of American history.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to play this card -- but, from over here on the East Coast, we've seen hundreds of years of American history play out, and we've participated in it. We know it in our bones.
That's not to say that a newcomer can't learn. But, clearly, Sarah and her rag tag followers have no sense of how we got to where we are. And, I regret to inform you, that, although Alaska is one of the United States, it'll take a long time for it to earn its stripes. It should sit back and wait while those who are older and wiser figure out what our 237-year-old country needs.
Barack Obama is from an even newer state -- but he's smart enough to understand the history of the country, and spent time on the East Coast and in Chicago, to become part of the decades-long debates about the direction of our nation.
Sarah simply doesn't know or hasn't learned. She's not qualified to make judgments, and can't admit her lazy ignorance.
Hey, Hawaii and Alaska both became states somewhat close together in time, but Hawaii is the newest.
DeleteI'd take Barack Obama any day over a Sarah Palin .... Hawaii is a much warmer and beautiful state than is Alaska. It's cold and has it's beauty but is noted to be one of the most corrupt states in the union. Alaska has so many 'first' ratings that it is embarrassing, i.e. rape, etc.
Hawaii is newer, but it's more diverse, with all sorts of cultures melding together to make a read democratic system. It's decades ahead of Alaska.
DeleteDowd's screed just props up the tea party GOP. It's the same as feeding your toddler's drama ploy by saying if you play with matches you'll burn down the house. We all know the way to deal with an extortionate toddler. You grab the matches and roar TIMEOUT.
ReplyDeleteThe lobbyists, the PACs and the high roller fat cats are keeping these tea-party congresscreeps in power. Obama needs to nail the Wall Streeters, the bankers, the corporate welfare queens and ROAR "remember TARP, remember those bailouts, well, kiss the happy days goodbye unless you call your miserable curs to heel".
If President Obama does even a micro-blink, he endangers the republic. We can NOT allow a minority of a minority to close the government.
Dowd delivered a direct hit on sarah. But you won't hear anything but crickets from the spineless, unkempt instigator. Like all bullies she's a coward throwing her taunts from, are you ready for this, a young peoples' social site. What pathetic vermin she is. When will the bushes, mcconnell, cantor, norquist and rove have enough of her party damaging bullshit and bury her? The longer they wait the more damage she and her sidekick, snidely whiplash cruz, will inflict upon the mortally wounded gotp party.
ReplyDeleteYou know Cruz really looks like Snidely Whiplash! Fanned and Faved (if I only could).
DeleteHold firm Mr. President. The nut jobs are at the door.
ReplyDeleteReading the comments is particularly chilling; not an optimistic bunch today...
ReplyDeleteWhen push came to shove, even Ayn Rand took Medicare and Social Security when medical costs resulting from lung cancer threatened to bankrupt her.
ReplyDeleteRafael Cruz just might be the Anti-Christ. Look at that picture.
ReplyDeleteLittle Rafie's got Dumbo Bimbo's nose and ears and the chin Bristol was born with, I can see the vestiges of the earlier "Sarahcuda" strain. Ms Dowd did an excellent job, but more than one "blackberry" in that dam has Sarahcuda's smudgy fingerprints on them.
ReplyDeleteRafe's gotta leave his igloo or his adobe hut and get some great vitamin D rays from the sun. He looks as healthy as a veal calf waiting for slaughter.
ReplyDeleteI have written Maureen Dowd off ever since her Sunday NY Times column, making fun of the possibility of Michelle Obama, an African American "from south Chicago," as first lady, during the 2008 campaign. That column was a despicable piece of racism and the newspaper should never have published it.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom