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PsychoBabble

(837 posts)
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 02:27 PM Mar 2017

"Nonsense Debt" concept ...

In his stunningly concise article, "Why Repeal and Replace Is Going So Badly," Josh Marshall introduces the concept of "Nonsense Debt" -- not monetary debt, per se, but the cultural debt that comes due when you spout increasingly ungrounded levels of nonsense to true believers, with the inevitable requirement to "up the ante" in order to remain relevant.

Eventually, as they say, "Sh!t hits the fan...."

This nonsense debt also altered the composition of Congress and especially the House Republican caucus. In each successive election of the Obama era, Republicans have bred for more and more extreme Representatives, more and more fed on nonsense debt. To put it more concretely, they have been reared not only on nonsense debt but never exposed to the realities of governing. As one of my colleagues put it, "if you think of it in evolutionary terms, the GOP has self-selected for hair on fire, apocalyptic conservatives for the last 10 years (maybe longer) -- actual policy knowledge is not a priority. Nor is legislative acumen." That reality is now colliding head on with the need to fulfill a campaign promise in a way that doesn't upend tens of millions of people's lives or lose Republicans their majority in 2018.


POLITICAL INBREEDING has created POLITICAL IDIOTS, basically.

Handed the sceptre of power, and unaware they could use it for transformational GOOD ... Republicans/Conservatives are just going to start beating people to death with it.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-repeal-and-replace-is-going-so-badly
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"Nonsense Debt" concept ... (Original Post) PsychoBabble Mar 2017 OP
I know but let's be fair about that. They Always Were idiots! caroldansen Mar 2017 #1
I remember a time growing up when ... PsychoBabble Mar 2017 #2
Think we're @ end-of-the-planet wrong. sarcasmo Mar 2017 #6
Just wait until the debt ceiling vote. Yavin4 Mar 2017 #3
Rand Paul said... Blanks Mar 2017 #4
Correct, and ... PsychoBabble Mar 2017 #5
Brought to you by ... GeorgeGist Mar 2017 #7

PsychoBabble

(837 posts)
2. I remember a time growing up when ...
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 02:37 PM
Mar 2017

I disagreed with them, and thought they were WRONG ... but not cataclysmically, end-of-the-US-as-we-know-it wrong.

Blanks

(4,835 posts)
4. Rand Paul said...
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 02:39 PM
Mar 2017

"We all voted to repeal last year, we just need to vote that way again."

Someone probably ought to put a photo of him in the dictionary next to the word 'clueless'.

Everyone else in the country knew it was posturing except him. Kentucky is one of the few red states with Medicaid Expansion.

PsychoBabble

(837 posts)
5. Correct, and ...
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 02:46 PM
Mar 2017

Every "system" decision has a cost.

For democratic decisions, it is usually that we are too generous, and people find ways to take advantage of us while we are in the process of helping people. It DOES happen.

For conservatives, it is that people die because you aren't willing to help them, because somebody (see above) might get something they didn't "earn."

"They deserved it." So they create systems where almost nobody gets nothing.

It really IS a clash of mindsets, and worldviews, that seem increasingly incompatible to me.

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