Small Government

[Lanya]

Destructive Creativity

by digby

I don't now about you, but I'm getting a little bit freaked out by these bridge and mine accidents. You get the feeling that the country is coming apart at the seams.

It's very important to recognize that this isn't just a series of unrelated accidents or bad luck. This is the result of the great conservative experiment in deregulating everything back to the 19th century and starving the treasury by demagoguing government.

Rick Perlstein points out in this epic e.Coli Conservative post that this experiment once even had a delightfully obfuscatory name: The Creative Society:

    Coal mining fatalities had been declining since 1926: yes, the last time mine safety was this bad the Charleston was all the rage. Then, in 2006, the most coalminers died than had in any one year in a decade. We're up to the largest percentage increase in 107 years.

    Why? How? By formula. They use corporate contributions to weaken government regulations, and to help cripple unions. They wage fierce anti-union jihads to keep workers and their advocates powerless. They violate even existing anemic safety rules, while pushing the mineral seams beyond all earthly limits to squeeze forth just a teensy bit more precious profit.

    Then they call the result a "mine accident."

    When Ronald Reagan ran for governor of 1966 he proposed what he called the "creative society"?government mobilizing the energies of the people" and "helping them organize their own solutions to these problems" by hiring business "experts" instead of civil servants. For example, since state hospitals and mental institutions were "in a sense, hotel operations," an expert committee of hotel operators could oversee them instead of "government planners." read on...




The conservatives have sold this country on a free lunch for decades now. Who needs government? Taxes are evil, no matter what they're used for. Government bureaucrats are incompetent by definition --- corporate bureaucrats, on the other hand, are creative, entrepreneurial geniuses who can solve all problems without it costing you anything! Don't worry, be happy.

How's that working out everybody? Are we feeling pretty happy?
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/destructive-creativity-by-digby-i-dont.html

[BT]

Bridge inspections are the responsibility of the state and local mincipalities.

[sirs]

Maybe Lanya, thru her op-ed contacts, could demonstrate, who among the conservatives wants to "do away with Government" or "all taxes are evil".  She should find at least 1 mainstream conservative who states that, being how it's been supposedly "sold" to the rest of the country.......................right?

[_JS]

Maybe Lanya, thru her op-ed contacts, could demonstrate, who among the conservatives wants to "do away with Government" or "all taxes are evil".  She should find at least 1 mainstream conservative who states that, being how it's been supposedly "sold" to the rest of the country.......................right?

It is clearly hyperbole used as a literary device.

[BT]

It is clearly hyperbole used as a literary device.

Is that another way of saying bullshit?

[_JS]

It is clearly hyperbole used as a literary device.

Is that another way of saying bullshit?

No. It depends how it is used.

[sirs]

It is clearly hyperbole used as a literary device .

Is that another way of saying bullshit?

No. It depends how it is used.

In this case it's apparently being used as BS

[Universe Prince]

Digby's rant is useless nonsense. He might be using hyperbole, but he comes across like one of those angry protesters who rails against capitalism while wearing designer sunglasses, top brand name sandals and a $25 T-shirt that says "Capitalism Sucks". In other words, he comes across as someone with a lot of emotion but no understanding of the actual situation. There might be a debate about smaller government, but Digby is apparently not prepared to offer anything of substance to that debate.

[Plane]

"...and starving the treasury ..."

How is this supposed to be true?

[Religious Dick]

You've got to be kidding. The Mississippi river spans the length of the United States, and has literally hundreds of bridges over it. One of them collapses in one of the most liberal states in the union, one with the third highest rate of taxation in the country, has spent millions of tax payer dollars on public services boondoggles, and when a bridge falls down in this most liberal of states, it's the conservatives fault?

Tell you what - get back to us when a bridge collapses in Tennessee, Mississippi or Louisiana.....