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PAUL BROUN. JR. IS CRAZY—PART 1
It really needs to be said: Congressman
Paul Broun, Jr. is sort of crazy. I don't mean
he's insane in a clinical sense; he can be left
alone with children, sharp objects or small
animals. But what is doubtful is whether
Broun is fit to inhabit any elected office
achievable outside an Elks lodge. Problem
is, Broun lives in something like a cartoon,
a make-believe world of absolutes: good and
evil, left and right; "with us" and "against
us." Little in the way of nuance or intricacy
is admitted to complicate his worldview.
Broun is what they call a "true believer," a
term describing a religious certitude which
just as well applies to the Congressman's
political and ideological positions. If he were
an Iranian or a Palestinian, we'd call him
a "fundamentalist." Like some members of
Hamas or Hezbollah, Broun applies the rigid
absolutism of his religious faith to nearly all
matters of state. This doesn't disqualify Broun
from much—just making decisions that affect
anyone other than himself. In fact, Broun
might make a great house painter. It's more
his speed, and painting is well-suited for folks
with absolutist tendencies: either the wall
is covered or it's not. But Washington is not
a place for painters—it's a place for artists.
Democracy is more than slapping paint on
clapboards; it requires an intellectual com
plexity more akin to painting on a canvas.
Broun ain't no Renoir.
A Steamroller of Solipsism
Congressman Broun has become all but
unhinged since the election of President
Obama. He's become so crazed that he invited
a religious cleric buddy to anoint the entrance
to the inauguration stage with holy oil in the
days before Obama took office. Yes, holy oil.
The episode, recorded for YouTube, reminded
viewers of the politics of the Taliban more
than anything our nation's founders had in
mind, with Broun and the Christian shaman
mumbling spells to protect the state house
from the swarthy interloper. I can imagine
Jefferson spinning in his grave like a rotisserie
chicken.
Broun is unable to regard the centrist
liberalism of Obama as anything other than
what he calls "the.steamroller of socialism."
Rational political observers find two immedi
ate problems with Broun's assessment: first,
that the President's political demeanor is one
of finesse and compromise, and that Obama's
aims are to the right of even the so-called
socialist governments of western Europe.
There's nothing "steamrolling" or "socialist"
about the President, just charisma and the
center-left politics of a president surrounded
by big-business Wall Street types, Clintonites
and actual Clintons.
But Broun is either too politically naive or
dogmatic (or both) to discern the difference.
After all, he's a doctor by training, not an
economist or political scientist. In the same
way that Broun would be better able to tell a
malignant cancer from a benign tumor than
would most of his constituents, it might be
that we're better able to tell Marxism from
capitalism, or "tyranny" from simply the
majority party. But that doesn't stop Broun.
"In my opinion_we've elected a Marxist to be
president of the United States," he said in the
days following the November election. Exactly:
In your opinion, Dr. Broun. An elementary
knowledge of the workings of capitalism and
an understanding of what Marxism is (and
what it isn't) would have stopped an informed
person from making any statement establish
ing Obama as anything other than a capitalist
liberal, a Democrat.
But get this: After months of unseemly
accusations, clever turns of phrase (the "un
stimulus bill," the "porkulous" bill, the "cow
patty with a marshmallow" bailout) and only
days after calling President Obama's first 100
days a "steamroller of socialism that is being
shoved down cur throats," Broun was "proud
to announce" the arrival of more than $2.2
million in federal money—some of it stimulus
money—for the University of Georgia. There's
a specter haunting America...
Praising the Market
Broun casts the tension between capitalist
and European-style socialist/Keynesian eco
nomics as no less than a battle between good
and evil, or, more appropriately for Broun: God
and Satan. Broun refers to capitalism as some
thing he "believes" in, as one would "believe"
in Jesus, Krishna or Zeus. In fact, Broun even
conflates economic and fiscal matters with
biblical rules of behavior, suggesting that
Americans pay no more than that which they
tithe at church: "The bottom line is that if 10
percent is good enough for the Lord, it should
be good enough for Uncle Sam." Feeding the
five thousand was an impressive feat, but pay
ing for highways, bridges and multiple wars on
a 10 percent tax would be a real miracle.
Ever since Adam Smith, capitalism has
been said to be animated by a sort of unseen
magic, the "invisible hand" and market
"forces" toward whom we must act properly •
or face their wrath. Further, bounty is said
to "trickle down" from above—like manna
from the heavens—as long as proper tribute
is paid to those on top. The language of the
fundamentalist economists from whom Broun
gets his theory sounds as much like fire-and-
brimstone preaching as it does like a social
science. An "invisible hand" whose will cannot
be fully known? Prayers that wealth will trickle
down from unknown benefactors, as long as
they are kept well-praised? Isn't that a God?
To Broun, it is. Broun's reverent worship of
the market is an easy step from his religious
fundamentalism. Any deviation from extreme
capitalist dogma is immediately rejected by
Broun as "socialist," "Marxist" or Hitlerian—
never mind that the epithets are not synonyms
at all. Confronted with what seems to Broun
the inconceivable "socialism" of Obama's eco
nomic policies, the Congressman imagines that
the new president will create a "Gestapo"-
like security force to maintain his "socialist"
dictatorship, "exactly what Hitler did in Nazi
Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet
Union did.* The needless overreaction is dif
ficult to comprehend until one realizes that
Broun understands the debate to be of meta
physical proportions.
In All Things, Worshipful
Broun delivered something of a creed on
the floor of the House of Representatives:
"There's a great thing we call the free market
in America," he began. "I'm an ardent capital
ist, and I believe the marketplace, unencum
bered by government regulation, is the best
way to control quality, quantity and cost of
all goods and services." In another speech, he
cited the "enslavement" (on a "plantation,"
no less) that comes with any deviation from
his severe vision of the free market. Capitalism
is not simply a type of economy to Broun, not
simply one way of producing widgets—it is
something to worship.
So, while it's becoming clear to more and
more Americans that the fundamentalism guid
ing the economy for the past generation has
delivered us a debilitating global crisis, Broun
appears unable to include the new revelations
of the economy's failures into his thinking.
He merely hugs closer to dogma, drifting off
into utopian visions of capitalist dreamworlds
where corporations pay no taxes, social secu
rity is "unconstitutional," and wealth is free
to accumulate in places far from the homes of
his constituents.
Broun and the crack team of Georgia House
Republicans devised a "budget" to counter
Obama's "radical socialist" one. "Budget" was
a misnomer, really, as the document advertised
by Broun was only two pages of bullet points
in oversized print. What did the make-believe
budget propose? An increase in the largest
socialistic program in America: the U.S. mili
tary. The military is almost entirely supplied
by a handful of "corporations" who feed off of
the taxpayer in a highly non-competitive non-
market. There are no mom-and-pop fighter
jet manufacturers competing with Lockheed
Martin or Boeing. There is hardly any market
at work, only government handouts to corpo
rations. But the military buttresses another of
Broun's fundamentalist perspectives: American
exceptionalism.
Matt Pulver
Coming up in Part 2: Broun’s views on American ex
ceptionalism, military spending, immigration policy,
abortion, marriage and more.
The King Of The Blues
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DAVID W. GRIFFETH,
Attorney
announces the relocation of his law office
to Downtown in the Fred Building
220 College Ave. Ste. 612,
Athens, Georgia
(706) 353-1360
iformer location 1)57 Baxter St >
Admitted to the Bar of the United
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•And lesser courts
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rDavid W Griffeth.com
JUNE 3,2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 7