Saturday, March 13, 2010

Ghosts Cannot Think

Ghosts propel Republicans these days. The ghost of Ronald Reagan, that great increaser of the national debt, whispers "Tax cuts! Tax cuts!" They've heard those words before. They echo them. It feels good.

"No government is good government!" shouts the man who arms his neighbors against marauders.

When Republicans ran the government, they had the facts on hand but they could ignore them as they chose and then contrive fantasy worlds out of what remained. Now, without access to those streams of real information, they have only the echoes of the past to rely on. Mottoes and creeds.

What the past gives them does not help them analyse the present. Ronald Reagan said very little about climate change - it wasn't so noticeable back then. So for modern conservatives, it doesn't exist. They deny its existence. They can't think about it because their ghosts provide no words to say.

Echoes are not real thoughts.

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