Saturday, March 07, 2009

Atlas Shrugged: "Whatevs"

I have never read Atlas Shrugged; and it becoming the GOP go-to playbook isn't really gonna make me bust nuts to curl up with it on a couch in my Hello Kitty! Snuggie either. But in looking at this article via Yglesias, I see the general upshoot is as such:
The plot of Rand’s novel is simple, despite its length — 1,088 pages in the current paperback edition. The United States is governed by bureaucrats, “looters” and “moochers,” who penalize and demonize creative people. The country is in decline because creative people are disappearing — they have followed the innovative John Galt to a mountain enclave, “Galt’s Gulch,” where they watch society crumble. Creativity has gone on strike (the working title of the novel was “The Strike”), and the engine of capitalism cannot run without it.

Without spraining my brain too much, I'm guessing the Republicans see themselves as the "creative" people who have been shut out and demonized by Obama, and find themselves watching America crumble because of it. Which makes perfect sense to me, cause if there's one word I would use to describe the Republican Party as of late it is "creative." I mean jesus, look at this shit they've come up with to try and solve the financial crisis - just over the past few weeks one guy has tried to introduce tax cuts. Then another guy came up with the idea of more tax cuts for the rich, and someone else thought up lowering taxes. Not to be outdone, a colleague suggested the "wow, so obviously simple and genius, was it really right in front of us the whole time?" idea of lowering taxes for the rich. I'm told there is another gentleman who is offering legislation wherein instead of presenting a contribution for the support of a government required of persons, groups, or businesses within the domain of that government, a citizen should just hold onto said money instead. I mean, for fuck's sake - either he's pissed off they're not his own ideas, or is simply blinded by this blizzard of fresh, innovative ideas; either way, Obama's gotta start listening to these ideas, at least while the GOP is "in the zone." Camon, Obama. You're better than that.

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