Friday, November 26, 2004

The GOP's Suicide Pact WIth America

After reading this NYT editorial about the Republican plan to cut Pell Grants, I have to wonder once again what the GOP hopes to gain that's half so valuable as what it's throwing away. All over the world, countries are investing in education, because they understand the perfectly clear relationship between a country's educational system and its economic and social well-being. But the GOP scorns win-win situations at this point, just as it scorns any act of common sense or grace or rationality that goes against the tangle of half-baked resentment, irrational fear, and psychosexual angst that it mistakes for "principles."

They've turned their petty grievances into policy, and turned policy into a suicide pact. If our nation's choice is between a better, healthier, more innovative, more competitive America and slavish adherence to whatever garish nonsense passes for wisdom in Grover Norquist's shriveled brain, we must choose the nonsense and rejoice...yea, even unto death. This is what happens when you confuse your positions with your best interests, and it's an error the business-minded consistently make, no matter how many books are written and how many seminars are held to explain the consequences of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

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