Listen to the Republican Politicians

It is important to listen to Republican pundits and politicians when they start predicting disaster as the result of some piece of “liberal” legislation.  Consider, for instance, the renewed chorus of dire consequences being sung out following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act is, in fact, constitutional.  Pay attention.  Those predictions may well come to pass.

In a Greek tragedy, the chorus speaks in orchestrated unison to present the will of the gods, foreshadow fate, and gloss over the deus ex machina going on behind the scenes.  The far-right monologue is much the same.  The talking points repeated and driven home by orchestrated repetition.  If we fail to heed the oracles, we will have only ourselves to blame.

A play, however, is scripted—the outcome is written before the performance takes place.  The modern oracles need to put effort into making their predictions come true, or at least making it appear as though their predictions have played out.  Otherwise, even the gullible will begin to suspect that the predictions were wrong and the pundits were liars.  The deus ex machina they employ is a combination of political maneuvering and media message management.  Things like filibustering jobs and immigration bills and then blaming the White House for failure to act, or cutting school funding and overburdening teachers with reporting mandates to demonstrate just how messed up our school system really is.

So pay attention to those predictions.  A lot of effort will go into making them come true.

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