Political Faults and Defaults

I am writing this post out ahead of President Obama's scheduled press conference on the debt ceiling negotiations, but I am, unfortunately, confident that little will change afterwards. The debt ceiling first came onto my radar two months ago when I happened upon an article that mentioned it in passing. Now, it appears that the debt ceiling is one of the more unfortunate defining moment in American society. With Democrats and Republicans standing fundamentally a world apart, it appears that the rest of us are the victims of this dispute.

There is nothing new I can say about the politics of the matter. I have no unique insights into the workings of the negotiations or the prospects of any deal being reached. However, I can speak to a climate of fear and frustration that has been burgeoning in people as the days go on. One need not look far, unfortunately, to find some of the worse sentiments being expressed. Just scroll down any YouTube video or blog entry on the matter and you'll see exactly the kind of thing I talked about here. Vitriol, it is clear, is born in the spaces where our ability to control outcomes is most limited.

At stake in all of this is the material life Americans have become accustomed to as well as the stability of the global economy. And make no mistake, this is precisely what is at stake. People like Michele Bachman who insist that a default would not be catastrophic demonstrate their incompetence in the realm of international finance and geopolitical economic matters and they should not be any measure of our appropriate responses to the crisis. So the score is this- this crisis has untold consequences that will inextricably change the United States domestically and internationally while politicians in the Tea Party and extremes of the GOP dominate the politics of denial.

Its difficult to not sit back and watch these negotiations and just resign myself to defeat. Not because I think the deal would cost so much or that the default is imminent, but because I can actually feel whatever little faith I had in politics slip away. And make no mistake, I blame both parties tremendously, but the GOP commands much more of my scorn. The time for petty politics has passed and yet they continue to play on like petulant children at a game far beyond their level of comprehension. Harsh words? Good. I don't like to make comments like that about politics, but this is where I find myself.

Even if some agreement is made, even if it is the "escape hatch" plan, I can have no confidence that congress will remain competent in doing its job. And part of that is because I fear that this debate has further polarized the American public and generated an even more divide body politic. I may be exhibiting an overly myopic perspective on politics in America, but there is something deeply unsettling about all of this beyond the threat of default. I am seeing less discussion of competing visions of the good and more Anne Coulter attack debates. Of course, there was never a golden age of political discourse in this country, but I think that the default of more long-lasting detriment is that of our political discourse on all levels.

I hope that come 2012, there is a change in the political landscape away from the kind of bickering and polarization that we see now. Maybe this will fade to a painful memory, but somehow, I doubt it.