Governing without a fail safe mechanism

I've been reading a lot of op-ed pieces like this one in today's Wall Street Journal predicting the end of America as we know it.

Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether the America of the last 200 years could or could not use some changes, if the sky-is-falling voices from the right are sincere, it points to an amazing level of recklessness in government. Follow me for a moment:

A central part of free market theory is that the market in general is cyclical, capable of going through some rather violent ups and downs. Everyone in politics understands that if you're in power, a violent down is likely to get you booted out of power. So, no matter how long the Republicans govern, their favored system of economics assures that at some point, they're going to get booted out.

Yet, somehow, they claim, they've used their time in power to build a system that will be completely destroyed if they aren't in charge. It's like building an all wooden home on the Florida coast, or a mortar less stone skyscraper in San Francisco. I'd add like making a mandala out of sand, but I don't think the Republican philosophy has much in common with that kind of impermanence by design, and when the Mandala blows away no one gets hurt.

The War in Iraq is a good case in point. The Republican argument for staying, at this point, is essentially that they've doubled down on their bad bet to the point that it would be certain disaster to leave the table. It's as if they didn't know we hold presidential elections every 4 years, or that Bush was term-limited. Their argument for electing a Republican is essentially that they've fouled things up so badly that reason itself no longer provides a functional solution. We're in the fourth quarter, down 28 because we've been throwing nothing but long passes and they've been getting picked off all day, and now long passes are the only thing that give us a chance.

The structure of our political system, however, is that we start a new ballgame every 4 years. This isn't a closely guarded secret. The teenage mentality of the Republican party has been to govern as if they would be there forever. It's time for an adult in the White House. If the Iraq claim is false, there's no reason to keep spending our blood and treasure there. If the Iraq claim is true, then it's blackmail, extortion, an attempt to control through fear.

Either way, it's time for a change. Five more days, folks. Go vote.