Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Not the Tea Party, dagnabit... the PEA Party

The Liquidity 'crisis' of the last few weeks has been a bit of fun entertainment. I guess I can understand those who paid close attention and are gnashing their teeth at the outcome, but I think some of the analysis is a little overblown.
So Ms. Marcus believes that the Tea Partiers are 'carjackers', eh? I have two responses, both informed mainly by Robert Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation", something that hit the hollow walls of academia while I was in college. Axelrod's thesis was that Tit-for-Tat is a very robust way to work/cooperate/negotiate with others.
So I look at the last nine months (since the Nov. 2010 elections) as a tit-for-tat response by the noble, justified, and right-thinking "Republicans"[1] to the a stream of decisions taken by the ignoble, unjustified, and left-thinking "Democrats"[2] over the last few years. "It's time for everyone to eat your peas," implores Mr. Obama. I think one side has been eating peas now for a couple of years straight -- actually, I'd characterize it more as having peas shoved down your throat with a fire hose.
In this sense, the election of Scott Brown was a shot across the bow -- "we hired you to be the adult in the room, not to hold the firehose", and the 2010 elections were a firm rap on the knuckles -- "still with the peas, huh? We thought we told you to behave!" So he can come on TV and tell us all that it's time to eat peas, but I'd say it's time for him to eat some damn peas.
The debt limit framework gives both sides a chance to have another turn, and the electioneer-in-chief can restart the game by discussing how tasty these deficit reduction peas are. The "bush tax cuts for the rich" peas don't count toward the end goal, so we can skip that trope. If the president dares, maybe real tax reform -- yes, the elimination of loopholes "for the rich", a long-term reduction in sacred cows like the mortgage interest deduction, [gosh, sounds a lot like the Bowles-Simpson plan] might be possible.
My second response is to Ms. Marcus herself. Since tit-for-tat suggests that she might become more... charitable... if she realizes that tit-for-tat is in effect, I have to tell you that she is a barely literate serial shoplifter and plagarist who gets her talking points straight from the DNC.
Your move.

[1] It's nice that they put the label (R) after the names of the reactionary, racist, rich-loving homophobes.
[2] It's also nice that they put the label (D) after the names of the ones who are deceptive demagogues who are dumber-than-a-rock.