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Kavanaugh: too high a cost
I read the newsgroup uk.religion.buddhist and as I saw another instance of Christian spam I realized that many of what upsets me are instances of some narrow interest causing broader, often lasting harm to a more general resource. Admittedly, with newsgroups it is not clear that trolls and spammers are what drove the valuable contributions away, maybe that is more to do with their being attracted by the pretty then-new shininess of dreadful PHP-based web fora. The general category of poisoning common resources also seems to admit the literal (ongoing!) poisoning of the water in Flint, MI, and, more generally, the decline of Congress.
I had thought that the Republicans were meant to conservatively respect institutional tradition but the way that they have trodden over the spirit of the rules and used barefaced lies and other dishonorable means to effect their goals leaves us with a dysfunctional Congress and, after horrifying hearings and superficial investigation, a delegitimized Supreme Court. Republicans' mean-spirited undermining of consultation and due process could be ruinous.
This is not a new phenomenon. The Redistricting Majority Project evinced a widespread lack of integrity. Perhaps we can trace the scorched-earth opposition to anything good Obama attempted back to Gingrich's demonization of the Democrats back in the nineties. Even when the Democrats regain power, they cannot quickly rebuild any atmosphere of trust or cooperation that can credibly be expected to last: the Republicans have shown how easily one can choose to burn it and, by that time, perhaps the Democrats will have seen how effective that is and become too bitter to even want to reverse it. After all, Reid laid some of the groundwork for what happened today.
I had not realized how many bad acts are instances of willfully ignoring costs because the culprits are not made to pay for the full impact of the harm they cause to what should be benefiting many. I suppose that the financial crisis demonstrated that but I can easily miss the obvious connections.
In learning about difficult periods of history I had wondered what I would do if I found myself in such challenging times. It is frustrating to find that the answer seems to be: to not even be there, having tied myself to living on a different continent for a decade. For me the significance of Brexit pales in comparison to America's steep decline in basic governance. Bipartisanship was already dead; it is now difficult to trust law enforcement and the judiciary to limit the damage.
I am not yet without hope. After the midterms the Democrats should have more governors who can influence the next redistricting and the House might at least uncover some of the truth before the next presidential election. Perhaps the coming decade could finally bring us trustworthy vote-counting and objective limits to gerrymanderingand ponies and rainbows. I shan't be holding my breath though.
I had thought that the Republicans were meant to conservatively respect institutional tradition but the way that they have trodden over the spirit of the rules and used barefaced lies and other dishonorable means to effect their goals leaves us with a dysfunctional Congress and, after horrifying hearings and superficial investigation, a delegitimized Supreme Court. Republicans' mean-spirited undermining of consultation and due process could be ruinous.
This is not a new phenomenon. The Redistricting Majority Project evinced a widespread lack of integrity. Perhaps we can trace the scorched-earth opposition to anything good Obama attempted back to Gingrich's demonization of the Democrats back in the nineties. Even when the Democrats regain power, they cannot quickly rebuild any atmosphere of trust or cooperation that can credibly be expected to last: the Republicans have shown how easily one can choose to burn it and, by that time, perhaps the Democrats will have seen how effective that is and become too bitter to even want to reverse it. After all, Reid laid some of the groundwork for what happened today.
I had not realized how many bad acts are instances of willfully ignoring costs because the culprits are not made to pay for the full impact of the harm they cause to what should be benefiting many. I suppose that the financial crisis demonstrated that but I can easily miss the obvious connections.
In learning about difficult periods of history I had wondered what I would do if I found myself in such challenging times. It is frustrating to find that the answer seems to be: to not even be there, having tied myself to living on a different continent for a decade. For me the significance of Brexit pales in comparison to America's steep decline in basic governance. Bipartisanship was already dead; it is now difficult to trust law enforcement and the judiciary to limit the damage.
I am not yet without hope. After the midterms the Democrats should have more governors who can influence the next redistricting and the House might at least uncover some of the truth before the next presidential election. Perhaps the coming decade could finally bring us trustworthy vote-counting and objective limits to gerrymandering