Lynne Kiesling
Another reason I’ve been staying away from the computer over the holidays is that between the Senate health care bill process, the futilely constructivist quest for government policy to stimulate the economy, proposals for financial regulation, and the craven stupidity of TSA policy proposals after the Christmas day bomb failure, I am fed up and disgusted with pretty much everything having to do with economic policy.
Of course, the frustrating thing with all of these issues is that I am so fed up and annoyed and disgusted, but feel so powerless. It’s not enough to call my so-called elected representatives and tell a staffer that I am fed up and disgusted. Democratic politics is so soul-sucking in this way that I am focusing my mental and emotional energy on the areas where I can find meaning and can see a difference due to my efforts. Sadly, though, I do feel like I’m fiddling while the republic is burning around me.
One meme has recurred in my reading over the past couple of days, particularly at Bruce Schneier’s blog where he discussed the Christmas bomb attempt, Christopher Hitchens on the TSA and how good we are at collective punishment of the innocent, and Bruce Schneier talking with Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic: it’s increasingly hard to escape the feeling of being terrorized by our own government. And not just at the airport.
