The Limits of Reason
2009-08-03 - by
A few days ago up in Washington the President got a visit from the Chinese; it seems China is holding $800 billion in U.S. government bonds (which basically means they’ve been loaning us the money to finance our national debt) so, naturally, about the last thing on earth they want is to see an outbreak of inflation.
So their Vice Premier hot-footed it over here to tell the President he needs to stop spending money and balance the budget (with the pretty clear inference if we don’t China’s going to stop lending us money) and since no one in their right mind argues with a banker they owe $800 billion Treasury Secretary Geitner saluted and said, Yes, sir, then President Obama added friendly as can be he’s looking forward to a new era of “cooperation, not confrontation” with China.
The President uses that phrase ‘a new era of cooperation, not confrontation’ a lot. It’s pretty clear he believes in his bones if folks can get beyond their natural inclination to intolerance or bigotry and let sweet reason and persuasion work its magic North Korea will stop shooting missiles over Japan and Iran will stop building a bomb to blow Israel to smithereens. It’s hard to argue with his equanimity except there’ve been times in the last hundred years when sweet reason and cooperation turned out to be about the worst policy on earth (for instance – last fall was the 70th anniversary of the Munich Accord).
Anyway, President Obama’s out planting the seeds of cooperation and building the road to harmony just about everywhere he goes – but what’s going to be more interesting is what happens the first time he sits down with a just plain mean two legged varmint, extends the hand of fellowship and draws back a stub.
That’ll probably be the end of singing kum-ba-ya with bomb and missile building demagogues (and it’ll be a pretty good example of the limits to reason too). What’s next? Well, generally, when a President figures out ‘Let’s sit down and reason together’ doesn’t work in the next breath he also figure out ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick’ is a policy even a varmint can understand.
Posted in General, National Democrats
The Limits of Reason
2009-08-03/
A few days ago up in Washington the President got a visit from the Chinese; it seems China is holding $800 billion in U.S. government bonds (which basically means they’ve been loaning us the money to finance our national debt) so, naturally, about the last thing on earth they want is to see an outbreak of inflation.
So their Vice Premier hot-footed it over here to tell the President he needs to stop spending money and balance the budget (with the pretty clear inference if we don’t China’s going to stop lending us money) and since no one in their right mind argues with a banker they owe $800 billion Treasury Secretary Geitner saluted and said, Yes, sir, then President Obama added friendly as can be he’s looking forward to a new era of “cooperation, not confrontation” with China.
The President uses that phrase ‘a new era of cooperation, not confrontation’ a lot. It’s pretty clear he believes in his bones if folks can get beyond their natural inclination to intolerance or bigotry and let sweet reason and persuasion work its magic North Korea will stop shooting missiles over Japan and Iran will stop building a bomb to blow Israel to smithereens. It’s hard to argue with his equanimity except there’ve been times in the last hundred years when sweet reason and cooperation turned out to be about the worst policy on earth (for instance – last fall was the 70th anniversary of the Munich Accord).
Anyway, President Obama’s out planting the seeds of cooperation and building the road to harmony just about everywhere he goes – but what’s going to be more interesting is what happens the first time he sits down with a just plain mean two legged varmint, extends the hand of fellowship and draws back a stub.
That’ll probably be the end of singing kum-ba-ya with bomb and missile building demagogues (and it’ll be a pretty good example of the limits to reason too). What’s next? Well, generally, when a President figures out ‘Let’s sit down and reason together’ doesn’t work in the next breath he also figure out ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick’ is a policy even a varmint can understand.
Posted in General, National Democrats