verging on random

A dysfunctional polity

May 8, 2011 on 5:22 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

The excellent Mahablog makes this observation:

A dead OBL is an achievement; a living one would soon turn into the Mother of All Bones of Political Contention. America is no longer a country that can sensibly discuss anything and come to rational decisions. If OBL were alive and in custody now, any decisions the President might make about what to do with him would be relentlessly attacked by the Right and used against him in the 2012 election.

I don’t think any serious observer could argue with that key sentence: ‘America is no longer a country that can sensibly discuss anything and come to rational decisions’. For all the talk of bipartisanship, US politics seem to be bogged down in a quagmire of bitter antagonism where effective governance is all but impossible.