“A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it, in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district than an entire state.”
James Madison, Federalist no. 10.
Examples of what the Founders considered improper or wicked projects have become the norm in America. The division of interests built into our republic failed to overcome the appeal of beggar-thy-neighbor politics.
Does anyone really think the Republicans will stand up for the people at the 11th hour this Friday by drawing a line in the sand over sequestration? Based on the evidence that they’ve never drawn such a line yet?
Republicans and Democrats both know that a spending cut, however insignificant, will undermine the central myth of federal necessity that keeps them in business.
Ask the storm survivors in New Orleans and the Jersey shore, the disarmed citizens in the big cities preyed upon by armed criminals, students in failed public schools, patients who rely upon medicaid, any of the supposed beneficiaries of federal spending, how well the myth of federal necessity is working out for them.
I wouldn’t bet on Boehner’s House this Friday. They’re as addicted as Democrats to the myth.
P.S. Well bowl me over with a feather. Let’s see what they do with the CR next month.