Only One Thing Bugs Me

Remarkable interview with Sidney Blumenthal (tip from Medley) about his book, The Clinton Wars, among other things.

There's one, and only one thing, that bothers me, and I'm suddenly reminded of various characters in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged when I think this. I can't believe in my heart that what he's describing is true, because I can't understand why someone would prefer a crippled nation over a self-reliant one. And that's a perspective articulated more than once in AS, how can anyone prefer the darkness when they can shine?

Because looking at the Clinton and Bush administrations, everything Blumenthal says makes sense. It hangs together. But I can't grasp the key element.

Method, yes. Opportunity, sure. But motive.

The only motives for deliberate destruction that I can name off the top of my head are jealousy, hate, and greed. Those are so personal, I have difficulty ascribing them to the socio-economic policies of a political party and President. It just doesn't make sense.

And yet, what Blumenthal describes,

They want to starve the public sector. That’s part of their overall strategy.

That’s what they’re doing through their budget, through their creation of these deficits.

They’re very clear in calculating, in my view, of how they’re using the deficits to crush the social gains and social progress and programs that were built up, not only during the Clinton Administration, but all the way back to Roosevelt.

[...]

Bill Clinton was in the line of great progressive presidents who faced the realities in his own time and applied innovative solutions to problems.

And they worked.

And those are the markers. That history. To apply against Bush. They work. Bush's programs are not working.

22 million new jobs under President Clinton. 3 million lost under Bush.

The greatest surplus in our history versus the greatest deficit.

Money to spend on education and health care and new and innovative proposals.

Under Bush, cuts. The worst fiscal crises of the states. And destruction of education programs and health care institutions throughout the country, as a result of his programs.

Which are not simply misguided but deliberate. They intend to do this. The Democrats need to say that.

Makes perfect sense.

But I still don't get why they intend to do this, and now that I think about it, that's going to be a major stumbling block for the Democrats. How to communicate a motive for dismantling America.

And the more I think about it, the obvious answer - which still doesn't really make sense, can be summed up in one word: power.

Not misguided civic duty. Not poor decisions. Not an economy that 'just happens'. Certainly not principles. Power.

But what underlies that thirst for control, for power, over me, over my fellow citizens?

Fear.

Fear of change. Fear of the future. Fear of what others might do with their self-determination. Other people, other nations. Fear of being wrong.

Suddenly this all makes far more sense than I'd like.