Sullivan's Descent

Sullivan's Descent - Sullivan notes in response to an email yesterday:

If you take seriously the fact that this country is headed toward fiscal catastrophe in the next decade, then restraining spending and raising some taxes in the next four years is almost as essential as tackling the entitlement crunch. Neither Bush nor Kerry wants to help. They're both cowards (although Kerry seems to have a better grip on fiscal reality than Bush does). So gridlock is the best option. The combination of Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress was great for the country's fiscal standing. Independents and anyone under 40 concerned with the deficit don't need a Perot. They just need to vote for Kerry and hope the GOP retains control of at least one half of Congress.

In peacetime, I might - MIGHT - almost agree with Sullivan.

But this isn't peacetime.

If the mainstream Democrats were remotely responsible when it came to foreign policy and defense, I might agree with you.

But the Democrats are not responsible when it comes to foreign policy and defense - and it doesn't take a rocket scientist ,or even a particularly avid reader, to see how frighteningly trivial they are. They are unfit to wear the same label that FDR, Truman and JFK wore.

And until we have a second party in this country that can be trusted IN ANY WAY with defense and foreign policy - in this case, especially until the Democrat party produces a candidate that any rational person would trust as a Commander In Chief, the notion that "gridlock is good" is fatally flawed.

In this case, "fatally" means "people die". Thousands of them.

In 1992 and 1994, when the world looked to be at peace for the foreseeable future, and the Republicans were selling out their core beliefs and the DLC Democrats were bad-but-not-too-bad, "gridlock" was an acceptable solution.

Today? No way.

Fiscal problems can be fixed. Dead Americans can not be.

Posted by Mitch at March 2, 2004 06:26 AM