Delaware Liberal

Whatever happens in congress over the next 24-48 hours, it is clear that we've entered a new phase of American democracy. In this phase, the notion that we can have rational debates and honest policy disagreements that are settled reasonably has flown out the window. Instead we have one party that is determined to fuck shit up in order to cleanse the country by fire. That means they should lose elections, but they have billions on their side, a willingness to flat out lie, and a committed core of ovine followers, so they are competitive in every election in spite of themselves. All that raises the question, What next? Think 123 does a great job imagining what life will be like before it gets any better:

In a way, New Age Conservative extremism is no different than the Old Age Communist extremism. It’s based on absolute self-certitude centered around a manifesto. It took the USSR seventy years to finally prove that manifestos and theories are not a fit way to govern. A few years of Ayn Rand manifesto based government, dismantling the safety nets, destroying Federal agencies, America will see the folly of trying to govern by ideology. Communism died by it’s own hand. Aynrandism might have to find that way to the ash heap of history too.

When Walt confessed to Skylar that he wasn't doing it for his family, but for himself he was confessing for all of us middle aged guys with daily secret Walter Mitty fantasies of wealth, power and a life free of the bourgeoisie clutter that comes along with a life lived according to expectations. Many marriages end because someone in the relationship can't continue to suck it up looking at that ceramic crying clown on the sideboard, and not flake out. Walt flaked out on a grand scale and in doing so brought guys like myself along to glimpse the "what if" possibilities of just saying "fuck it" and letting our Id take the wheel. In the end Walt paid dearly for his folly and most of us know that the price for letting go is far too high. But that doesn't stop us from imagining what different choices would mean to us on a daily basis. Science says that the difference between humans and animals is that we are tool users. If that is true the tool that defines us is our imagination. Animals are locked into a practical day to day existence that never dwells on the past or imagines a different future. We, as humans, do both. Was the misery and death Walt left in his wake worth his few moments of "feeling alive" and being on top? By any objective measure it was not. And yet, he seemed to die with a gleam in his eye. He had lived a horribly, destructive, selfish life. But in the end he killed Nazis and freed Jesse. Not bad for a chemistry teacher.