“I can’t see! I can’t see!”
“Why not kid?”
“I’ve got my eyes closed”

Blind faith in science and belief the market will solve all our problems derive from a core magical belief: what is good for capitalism is good for America. It’s easy to poke holes in this belief – by for example, noting that unbridled capitalism utilizes slave labor and condones obscene pollution – but it has an ironclad grip on the American psyche. This is an example of the Fallacy of Accident, a naivete that lets crooks like Alan Greenspan off the hook.

Magical thinking would be of only academic interest if it did not have such a profound affect on public policy. Naïve faith in the “free-market” and the “self-correcting” marketplace led to deregulation and, ultimately, horrendous disasters. Now America is facing difficult choices about issues such as deficit reduction and energy. Widespread use of magical thinking could preclude wise decisions.

Most Americans are worried about the deficit. But they also want their taxes to be reduced. When asked the best way to both reduce the deficit and cut taxes, they typically answer reduce wasteful government programs. Magical thinking believes this is plausible and uses miniscule examples of ill-conceived Federal programs to support an unwarranted generalization: all government programs are wasteful.

But they’re not. Roughly 46 percent of budget goes to military-related spending that most Americans don’t want to reduce. Another 39 percent goes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs that most Americans support. That leaves approximately 15 percent of expenditures that could theoretically be reduced. But this includes items like the interest on the debt and homeland security, programs that Americans support once they understand the details. As was true in the meltdown of the financial system and the BP oil leak, magical thinking will not allow the US to both reduce the deficit and taxes. The solution to the deficit problem is to raise taxes for corporations and the rich.

Another sad example that many Republicans are in dire need of psychiatric help:

…the Minnesota Republican party just nominated for Governor Tom Emmer who says no federal laws should apply in Minnesota unless 2/3 of both houses of the state legislature approve the law in advance.

Where were all these lunatics when Bush/Cheney were starting illegal wars, when Bush/Cheney ruined the American economy, when they deregulated everything they possibly could? Where were they when Bush/Cheney turned their backs on New Orleans and on and on and on?

They were there applauding and supporting every cockamamie thing Bush/Cheney did that brought us to where we are today! “No federal laws in Minnesota” is the most ridiculous campaign slogan ever, even when considering it is Republican. Is he just another looney Libertarian in disguise??