The World Is Too Much With Us

High Despoiler of Donkdom Michael J. Smith puts me in mind again of the good old Wystan Hugh. I recall arguing with someone once, à propos Monsieur le président Buisson, that any proposition holding electoral success as a mark of or evidence for superior intelligence was inherently false, the the skill sets, as we call 'em around the office, necessary to actuate officeholderdom were unrelated to keen intellect and were linked instead to a fulsome sense of ethical abandon. Whither the conviction that all politicians are crooks and morons? Folk wisdom, but wisdom nonetheless, that.

Anyway, mutatis mutandis, Obama and the gang. The Lib conviction that once his own comrades effaced bias from the halls of Washington and imposed scientific governance, every problem could be solved like textbook physics, i.e., acted on by simple forces, untroubled in their smooth parabolic paths by air resistance, wind, surface mechanics. Amateurs. Half-assed Keynesianism will find its defenders in those who pledge faith and fealty to the Soul-Consuming Elder God of The Something that Must Be Done, who apply a know-nothing acceptance of the doctrine that spending can stimulate growth to arguing that any spending must stimulate growth, a radically different notion when you consider it for just a moment. Other than random appeals to multiplier effects and other such Magiks, no one can quite name a mechanism through which any of the supposed stimuli will stimulate anything. How will any of this money move out into the "broader economy." Motherfuckers don't need more credit; motherfuckers need jobs. I would have less trouble with some new WPA, but the laid-off (and soon-to-be) workforce isn't a manufacturing workforce easily reassigned to construction and infrastructure projects. Take a gander around the office, ye Blogreaders. If yours is anything like mine, the closest thing to shovel-ready is the bag of Tostitos in the kitchenette.