Pepper sprayed for public safety.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

A disinterested, ignorant, bought-off public will seek no changes until a true crisis is at hand. No politician will take any of the steps needed to start remedying some of our problems so long as punting-and-pretending keeps the status quo afloat. We need a real nadir or we risk muddling through a horrible decade of softened landings in which our quality of life and freedoms are eroded far beyond where they would have been had we agreed to accept the pain more acutely.

How much worse do things have to get? We have massive unemployment by this country's standards, and our politicians have proven that they can blink and look away and hope that things will get better on their own. In particular, Republicans have rationally decided that their political class will be rewarded if the economy is in bad shape, and that they have absolutely zero incentive to cooperate with Democrats. If anything, they are speeding the crisis by playing Russian Roulette with the debt ceiling. Do you see any sign that voters will hold it against them?