Killing Iranians For Fun and Profit.

dec·a·dent (dk-dnt, d-kdnt) adj.
1. Being in a state of decline or decay.
2. Marked by or providing unrestrained gratification; self-indulgent.

Degenerate De*gen"er*ate (?), v. i. To be or grow worse than one's kind, or than one was originally; hence, to be inferior; to grow poorer, meaner, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities; to deteriorate.

David Broder n -- See above definitions.

Just when it was thought that the national conversation could not get any more ridiculous or absurd, in jumps David Broder to lower the national I.Q. by ten further points. Where to begin? How to respond to his Op-Ed of October 31, 2010? It can not really be done in one post. It is such a rich and deep vein of pure idiocy that one could spend a year merely mocking it, and a further five years deconstructing it.

You could drill down and attempt to rebut his really bad economic history as it pertains to World War Two. Before Pearl Harbor and after, the war was not a full employment program. It was an existential challenge to the well being to the United State. Just think what a disaster a Nazi hegemony from the Pyrenees to the Urals would be for the U.S. Think of the dystopia that Hitler would have created with such a leviathan. To reduce the history of World War Two to an (incorrect) accounting of dollars and cents is perverse.

Remember who is writing the Op-Ed gentle reader. This is not some Cheetos-stained wretch banging away at the PC in his mother's basement. This not some marginal character contributing a bit of bile to Red State or Free Republic. No dear reader, this is the “dean” of the Washington press core. This is the pundit's pundit. Look upon this edifice and weep. David Broder has unintentionally reveled how badly the rot has infected our elites.

Despite the last coda, despite the weasel worded last paragraph of his missive, Mr. Broder is arguing that the way to jump-start our sputtering economy is to engage in a war of choice with Iran. This is your upper elites dear reader. This is the oligarchy that is running our nation straight into a ditch. The moral vacuity and rampant cynicism is breathtaking to behold. The hubris of the idea is gob-smacking. It is illustrative of our new gilded age, of how our entire leadership has been corrupted by the morals of Wall Street pirates.

Only a hermetically sealed and degenerate leadership could even come up with such notions. This is an idea totally detached from any morality or common sense. Only a privileged and disconnected elite that has never actually had to do the actual dirty work of killing could conceive of such a program.

This is an elite with absolutely no learning curve what so ever. It is like the debacle of Iraq has no impact on them at all. Not a whit. “Let’s charge off into yet another poorly conceived war of choice in the Near East,” says Mr. Broder, “it will be great.”

For all his faults we should not shoot the messenger. We should not aim for the muddled head of David Broder. He is merely the stenographer to power. This is what really passes for grand strategic thinking among some denizens of the beltway. It is definitely hard-wired into the obsessions of anti-Iranian cabal. It is yet another attempt to clear the way for a battle against the mullahs.

That Broder would pitch this nasty bit of colonial over-reach as a jobs program is particularly revealing. It is a truly warped understanding of fiscal policy. It is an admission that the only kind of Keynesianism that is acceptable to the power elites is the one attached to the senseless slaughter of our fellow humans. We must feed the raging maw of the military-industrial-colonial-security apparatus. We must keep feeding the angry gods of war with fresh sacrifices if we want to return to prosperity.

The wishes of our citizenry and the citizens of Iran don’t factor in this cynical calculus. It is all about getting the dysfunctional and thoroughly corrupt elites in DC and Wall Street to play nice again. The pointless slaughter of the Iranians is just the thing to get Obama and the Republicans singing kumbaya? It is the only acceptable way to achieve economic stimulus? Sweet Baby Jesus on a Pogo Stick, what an utterly vile talking point.

Again, this is what passes for erudite thinking in the chattering classes. Broder published this missive because he accepts the conventional wisdom of the ruling elites. He is an fun house reflection of the mental gyrations of the fever swamps of the Potomac. It is a mind set utterly without moral, rational, or reality-based underpinnings. This is what passes for “moderation” in D.C. Granted, Broder may have just mailed in this Sunday missive, but it is truly a post card from the edge.

Broder must have had a slight twinge of conscience or a passing regard for public opinion before he released this crayon-scrawled missive. How else to explain the last paragraph? Still it is rather thin stuff. It is a bad attempt to say “ nothing to see here, move along.” It is a desultory attempt to reestablish his reputation as wise and responsible purveyor of opinion. It is ineptly and sloppily done. In the end it is an admission of not only of Mr. Broder’s moral bankruptcy, but also the moral bankruptcy of the leadership he apes and adores.