David Roberts on Twisted Priorities and Collective Delusions of Beltway Centrism

David Roberts is absolutely correct about the insane stupidity of the echo chamber that dominates centrist beltway thinking--and how this was revealed in the questions asked at the recent v-p debate:

This is what happens when you live in D.C. and marinate in Pete Peterson-funded conventional wisdom all day. Your view of domestic policy withers to: Cut taxes. Cut social insurance programs. Increase the defense budget. Speak in pious tones about abortion. And be civil. 

It’s such a crusty, outdated, out-of-touch view of the world. 

And of course the most ridiculous thing about it is that it takes a fake crisis — the long-term deficit — as its core measure of “seriousness” and completely ignores a real crisis — climate change — that threatens this country far more than deficits (or incivility) ever will. It’s a worldview that is simply not adequate to the times we live in. Somehow we’ve got to break its hold.

The polar caps are melting.  The world is quite literally afire.  In much of the American heartland, roads are cracked and potholed and likely not to be fixed any sooner than are the creaky bridges now dangerous to drive across. Elected officials in my state are talking about the command in Leviticus to stone disobedient children to death.

And the beltway and its fawning media want to talk about entitlements?  And how one's stance regarding Roe v. Wade defines one as a true or false Catholic?

Talk about tragically out of touch with reality, and with the nation on whose behalf these chattering leaders and chattering media folks presume to represent . . . .