America, We Have a Problem

When Rep Paul Ryan was nominated, I welcomed the choice because, even while I documented ways in which his numbers don’t add up, and documented his reverse Robin Hood’ism, he espouses a vision of government’s role that is very different from my own. As he says, this is the debate we need to have. But I also worried, loudly, that we won’t have that vital debate if we are not highly vigilant. We need a debate about the role of government. It’s not a simple debate, but neither is it rocket science. There are distinct choices in how societies deal with challenges, how they apportion risk, how they decide which functions are critical and how they pay their costs. And today, with so much disinformation and post-truthiness, I’m having a hard time seeing how we will be able to make the right choices in a true democratic manner.