The Debt Ceiling and the yearning for apocalypse

I don't expect anyone to follow American politics as I do; most Americans sure don't, and they can actually vote. The debt ceiling nightmare is an exception, because if these assholes sitting an ocean away default on the US debt, it will screw up the economy of the whole world.

If the debt ceiling had a threat level, it would be moving from 'this is incredibly stupid' to 'stock up on canned goods' (from Think Progress):

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said today that some members of his own caucus who are refusing to agree to a compromise debt ceiling deal are hoping to unleash "chaos" and thus force the White House and Senate Democrats to make bigger concessions than they're already offering. As many as 40 House Republicans, especially Tea Party members and freshmen, have demanded nothing short of changing the Constitution to include a balanced budget amendment before they would vote to raise debt ceiling, even though that has zero chance before the U.S. faces potential default on Aug. 2.

He's speaking on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham's program. The assumption has been that this kind of talk is for negotiation, but Boehner is before an audience of believers here. The supposed leader of the House is basically admitting that he isn't in control of his own caucus.

BOEHNER: Well, first they want more. And my goodness, I want more too. And secondly, a lot of them believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment. I'm not sure that that — I don't think that that strategy works. Because I think the closer we get to August the second, frankly, the less leverage we have vis a vis our colleagues in the Senate and the White House.

So the President is trying to negotiate with a party that doesn't have a coherent position of its own. The money-worshippers are down on their knees praying their billionaire employers will come and save them from the people they've always treated as useful idiots, while the idiots in question actively hope for the second worldwide economic crisis in five years.

So basically we're on track to have the largest economy in the world crashed purely by magical thinking. What kind of jackass would want such a disaster?

It's all in Boehner's quote. The Tea Partiers yearn for economic apocalypse the same way fundamentalists yearn for a Christian one. There's obviously some overlap between those two groups, but these prophetic ideas are so deeply embedded in our culture that you don't have to be up on your testaments to follow their thinking. Both groups think the world(or nation) is too corrupt to reform on its own, and what is needed is a great cleansing fire to sweep away the old order. Then a new, better one can be built, better in this case meaning conforming exactly to their own ideas, whether it's the Ten Commandments or a constitution that forbids deficits and gay marriage. They will be the phoenix that rises from the ashes. And when you try to tell them that the phoenix is a mythical beast, the only thing that will prove is that you're an enemy.