A Powerful Insult

It's hard not to write about seeing your country reduced to rubble. The mechanisms are interesting. There are many facets to the thing, some more representative of the inner workings than others, but at one level the absolute purity of the insult is astonishing.

Why? That's the question asked so often, and there is often an answer, but when there is no answer, no tactical or strategic explanation, you are sometimes faced with the realization that it is only a display. They do it sometimes just because they can and want to. 

And they do something that doesn't make any sense specifically to show their power, something so insulting to smash the morale of their adversaries. If this doesn't sound extreme to you, remember, that we're supposed to be ON THE SAME FUCKING SIDE.

The pivotal year here is 1994, when Newt Gingrich's brownshirts showed up in Washington, religious rebels and crusaders, certain of their superiority and rightness. That was the end of civility and reasonable and reasonably effective government. Credit it to Newt. 

We might as well. He will be proud. He has made his mark. The wrecking crew has done what they came for. Our country is ashes, an unrecognizable hulk and burned-out shell. We have no idea whatsoever what we stand for anymore.