I don’t even know how to begin with this.
Republican members of the House of Representatives have decided that knowledge of what actually is happening in US society and its economy is just too….
I don’t know what…
Inconvenient?…Unfortunate?…Too…useful?…Too important to the actual act of governing?
That last is the one, I think. Representative Jeff Duncan, out to make sure that his great state of South Carolina doesn’t lose the lunacy title to its sibling to the north, has introduced a bill that would bar the US Census [PDF] from conducting any surveys or censuses except for the constitutionally-mandated decennial one.
What would that mean? Over to this report from the Huffington Post:
Such a step that would end the government’s ability to provide reliable estimates of the employment rate. Indeed, the government would not be able to produce any of the major economic indices that move markets every month, said multiple statistics experts, who were aghast at the proposal….
“It’s hard to take this seriously because they’re really saying also they don’t want GDP. They want no facts about what’s going on in the U.S. economy,” said [Maurine] Haver, [founder of business research firm Haver Analytics and a past president of the National Association for Business Economics]. “It’s so fundamental to a free society that we have this kind of information, I can’t fathom where they’re coming from. I really can’t.”
“It’s so unimaginable. It would be like saying we don’t need policemen anymore, we don’t need firemen anymore,” said [Ken] Prewitt, [the former director of the U.S. Census who is now a professor of public affairs at Columbia University]. “To say suddenly we don’t need statistical information about the American economy, or American society, or American demography, or American trade, or whatever — it’s an Alice in Wonderland moment.”
I get Duncan’s reasoning, by the way. It’s a simple syllogism. If the data show that tax cuts, or austerity, or universal gun ownership don’t actually solve all economic and social ills, then, who needs data?
Ladies and gentlemen, your modern Republican party.
Oh, and with a nod to Mr. David Brooks and his paean to disinterested opining: this is engaged writing. I got a horse in the race. I think the Republican party in its present form constitutes a clear and present danger to the Republic. I believe it needs to go the way of the Whigs, so that we can go about the business of constructing an actual second party to engage the necessary debate our politics requires.
It is in the context of that belief that I certainly pay attention to stories like this one. This is the anecdata that, as it accumulates, tells you the problem is real; the Republican party is increasingly simply a freak show, divorced from any conception of governance. But it ain’t my fault — and it is no indictment against this or any other comment like it — that the Republican party continues to advance my argument.
Another thing: I’d vastly prefer it didn’t. But the problem isn’t that I don’t — because I can’t — say that the Democrats are just as bad on, say, anti-empiricism, for example, or that the issue of paying attention to what happens in the world is kind of important in modern political and social life. Rather, it is that in this reality there are consequences when a failed party retains its access to power — and hell, may very well expand its reach.
IOW, pace BoBo, I believe it is my patriotic duty to point in horror at the crater that is all that remains of the Party of Lincoln.
Image: Pieter Breughel the Elder, The Census at Bethlehem, 1566.
Linnaeus
Call it what it is: right-wing Lysenkoism.
Michele C
You know, I know I’m naive, but I keep wondering why those who are not full-out batshit crazy continue to support those who are merely because the crazy ones call themselves “Republican.” Shouldn’t there be people who tend conservative on certain issues that aren’t in the bag for people who would stop the census, end research funding, etc.?
Villago Delenda Est
Linnaeus wins the thread. On the first comment.
El Cid
The plural of anecdote is “just good old fashioned common sense for Real Americans”.
jibeaux
Sure. They already do this with gun violence data, to good effect.
Linnaeus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Woo hoo!
dmsilev
Fuck. One branch of government is being run by a bunch of petulant four year olds.
Linnaeus
@Michele C:
There’s a lot of things at work here, but let me offer a couple of factors:
1. A lot of these issues are under the radar of many, if not most, voters. They don’t look like big issues (as opposed to say, taxes & revenue, reproductive rights, environmental protection) and don’t get a lot of press, at least not from the major sources that most Americans still get their information from. So people don’t necessarily know this is going on and may not have the time (especially in this bad economy) to investigate what’s going on.
2. The right has gotten very good at making radical measures seem “reasonable”. Academic research is a really good example. Academics work on a lot of stuff that looks obscure and esoteric to nonspecialists, and when the social benefit isn’t immediately obvious (or is less tangible), a lot of people will begin to think, “Should someone else be funding this if they want to know about Obscure Topic X so much?”
scav
Nationwide street centerline data — original backbone of all those automated routing pinpoint to the top of houses internet mapping, lives in cars and phones, blah di blah blah. Large initial push (admittedly needed help, but what first effort designed for slightly different purpose doesn’t.) Census Tiger Files. Right. Starve that beast, it’s not as though any of that was needed as yeast or to get the ball rolling for GTS, Navteq, . . .
Eta. great, I’m now forgetting initial whiles in full rant. GDT shold be it.
anon
This stuff, as well as the NRA-mandated prohibition on research into gun violence or something like that, is reminiscent of the slavers “gag rules” in the federal Congress.
c u n d gulag
Let the 27% of the people who are sociopathic @$$holes form their own rump party!
anon
This stuff, as well as the NRA-mandated prohibition on research into gun violence or something like that, is reminiscent of the slavers’ “gag rules” in the federal Congress.
Calouste
So now we have the names of 11 Congress people who have self-identified as too fucking stupid for their position. Let me guess, all Southern Republicans?
jl
First off, please leave that poor Mr. Brooks alone. From the looks of his latest column, he’s a broken man.
As for the Census, I say, let’s go Rep Duncan one better.
Destroy records of all non-constitutionally mandated information ever collected by the Census Bureau.
That would be fun, we could burn books going back to 1820, for that is when the rot of freedom destroying non-Constitutionally mandated information gathering began.
Who the hell was president in 1820?
That damn socialist nanny-state totalitarian Monroe that’s who. Let’s dig up his body and burn it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Semi-OT, but I couldn’t pass this up: I was glancing at the WaPo Health/Science story Skeleton of teenage girl confirms cannibalism at Jamestown colony and noticed that for some strange reason the name Paul Ryan keeps appearing in the comments, in a Swiftian sort of way.
Austerity, it’s what’s for dinner!
FlipYrWhig
This was A Thing among the conserva-fringe for a while: Obama and his stormtrooper Census Army will use the American Community Survey to invade your privacy by haranguing you about your toilets and how they flush.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
And his vile Islamo-socialist “Doctrine”, too!
MattF
Republicans object to any English paragraph that contains the word ‘governance’ and the word ‘Republican’… they say, ‘make it illegal’. And I almost agree… after all, if that doesn’t solve our problems, one can only ask… what will?
dmsilev
@Calouste: All Republicans, but not all Southern. Searching thomas.loc.gov for details on HR.1638, I get the following cosponsors:
Rep Chaffetz, Jason [UT-3] – 4/18/2013
Rep Harris, Andy [MD-1] – 4/18/2013
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] – 4/18/2013
Rep Labrador, Raul R. [ID-1] – 4/24/2013
Rep Massie, Thomas [KY-4] – 4/24/2013
Rep Pearce, Stevan [NM-2] – 4/18/2013
Rep Posey, Bill [FL-8] – 4/24/2013
Rep Ribble, Reid J. [WI-8] – 4/18/2013
Rep Southerland, Steve II [FL-2] – 4/18/2013
Rep Stockman, Steve [TX-36] – 4/25/2013
TenguPhule
Apparently these Republicans are somewhere between “Too Stupid to Live” and “Too Stupid to be trusted with anything, but smart enough to avoid mixing water and electricity”.
MattF
@dmsilev: Ack. Maryland. I’m embarrassed.
Jim Pharo
Tom, you need to internally process the following: the modern GOP are anarchists, pure and simple.
The reason why it’s sometimes hard to say why the GOP is so jaw-droppingly wrong compared to the pathetic and corrupt Democrats is that the GOP’s entire critique is that government itself is not legitimate. That’s their only actual value.
Grover doesn’t want to shrink government so it can fit in a bathtub so can give it a nice shampoo….
Michele C
@Linnaeus:
True enough. I actually meant the pundits and their friends though. I know that my husband’s relatives thought the economics professor that taught their eldest his first year of college was crazy because he said that education increases GDP. I know that they only watch Fox News and rarely that, because watching sports is more fun. I bet they’ve never even read Bobo.
I guess I’m wondering why the elites and the pundits continue to support these nincompoops.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
I’m shocked, shocked!
jl
The sinister Census plot really got started in 1840 when the Census got its own staff of jack booted totalitarian thugs and spies. Then the lid blew off, and the damn Census was nosing into everything all the time, destroying our freedom.
And who was behind it?
Martin Van Buren, and DemocRAT president, from NOOOO YOOOORK CITY! New York, a blue state of depraved collectivists. That’s who. Coincidence, I think not.
This freedom hating conspiracy is deep and it is long. That God for these brave Representatives. Pray for their safety.
For this is the deepest, longest, master conspiracy behind all the others.
You haven’t heard about it, sheeples? Well, you haven’t been wise enough to invest in my special boxed set of Beck/Jones videos and gold buying guide, where it is all revealed.
Sterling
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Semi-OT, but I couldn’t pass this up: I was glancing at the WaPo Health/Science story Skeleton of teenage girl confirms cannibalism at Jamestown colony
Yeah, Matt Yglesias already has a post up explaining that being eaten was a choice she made as part of rational system of resource allocation in a system of global trade.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
WTF is wrong with Gohmert, I might add. I guess he hasn’t been approached to co-sponsor, yet…
Michele C
@jl: Okay, now I’m seeing ads for switching my IRA to gold, thankyouverymuch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Michele C:
“Lear Capital, fleecing the target audience of The Blaze since 2011.”
dmsilev
@Villago Delenda Est: Or Crazy-Eyes Bachmann for that matter.
If we could only figure out how to profitably mine GOP Stupid, it would cure all budget problems forever. Do you think Wall Street would be interested in issuing some Stupidity-Backed Bonds?
Linnaeus
@Michele C:
Class interest. They gain more than they lose.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
When stupid gets to $20 a barrel, I call dibs on Michelle Bachmann’s head.
Mino
@Calouste: All Texans.
dmsilev
@Michele C: Mysterious are the ways of the Googlematic Adtronic 3000. Right now, it’s giving me an ad for a baby-sitter referral service. Seeing as I am not in a position to either provide or require such services, I’m not sure what triggered that.
scav
@dmsilev: Mine seems to think I need a nap — all posturepedic or sleepcomfort.
patrick II
There is a satellite that was supposed to measure global climate change that the Bush administration put in a warehouse so we avoid climate data. There were satellite pictures of large ice breakups at the arctic that we only saw after Bush left office. There is the suppression of the collection of any data concerning gun deaths by the federal government. Tom Coburn has joined the fun by stopping any funding for political science that might create any studies with data counter to what he wants to hear.
Those are just off of the top of my head. A country can’t live like this any more than a person can. Extreme denial is a type of insanity that has consequences. And while the time arc of a country is longer than a person, eventually the same sort of devastation is inevitable.
Michele C
@Linnaeus: I’m sure you’re sick of me by now, but, really? Sigh.
Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.
danimal
@Villago Delenda Est: He’s fighting with Steve King over the pen to co-sign. Don’t worry, they’ll be onto this (and Michele!, too) soon enough.
It’s all written in Agenda 21, sheeples.
Morzer
@Sterling:
He is, however, concerned that those who butchered her might have been forced to go through an over-credentialed training system. So he’s not a complete moral monster.
gene108
I wonder if Wall Street wants this kind of lack of solid information?
Or do they want to do away with all transparency laws – like the 1933 and 1934 Acts – and take a risk that the entire economy blows up from their greed?
Morzer
@patrick II:
Right. We’ve allowed one branch of government to fall into the hands of the mentally ill – and if we don’t find a way to get it back and revive the idea of good, sane, competent government as the better option, the consequences will be absolutely appalling.
low-tech cyclist
Even the business community should be able to see that these clowns shouldn’t be trusted to handle cutlery, let alone be in a position to monkeywrench the U.S. government.
These guys are off the deep end.
JustRuss
@Michele C:
Tribalism. If my side does it, it must be OK. No matter what “it” is. Because liberals are bad, so by default we are good. Exhibit A: Torture. Loved by Republicans everywhere as soon as the Bush administration started doing it.
Arm The Homeless
How could I guess that my do-nothing, know-nothing congressperson Steve “My mother thinks I am qualified” Southerland would be signed on to this?
I profusely apologize for my neighbors who voted this twit into office. To be fair, we kept electing Alan Boyd for years, so this isn’t a surprise.
Linnaeus
@Michele C:
I feel much the same way, but it’s the best explanation I can come up with.
Mike E
@jl:
In due time–wangers are too busy disassembling the FDR monolith.
Frankensteinbeck
I know @jl sounds joking, but this is an important part of the bill’s motivation. The paranoid element of the GOP has been terrified of the census as a tool of oppression since time out of mind. Something mysterious happened four years ago that made the merely asshole element of the GOP so pants-wettingly terrified that they’re buying into the paranoid fantasies as a mass.
Mezz (fpa Michael2)
Thought this was the most accurate and concise description of the political crisis in America now. If only the news would cover it as breathlessly as it does all its “both sides do it” bullshit.
Rey
In Bobo’s World… sounds like a children’s book on logical fallacies. The fallacy of the excluded middle, for instance, might read “In Bobo’s world… your’re either Maker or a Taker … and nobody takes and makes!” with a picture of people (who are nothing but heads with legs with arms sticking out their ears) kicking the shit out of a wee David Brooks and stealing his lunch money.
Chris
@Mezz (fpa Michael2):
Quoted for truth.
Barry
@Michele C: “I guess I’m wondering why the elites and the pundits continue to support these nincompoops. ”
Because they love themselves right-wing attack orcs. And they feel that they themselves will suffer little or no damage.
RaflW
Sorry, Maurine Havner, dear. That faction of the GOP really, really is that insane/stupid/paranoid.
I know, its shocking. But we’ve managed to give Congressional jobs to people who are dangerously stupid and foamingly ideological.
Bubblegum Tate
@FlipYrWhig:
Didn’t Erick, Son of Erick threaten to chase Census-takers off his property with a shotgun?
schrodinger's cat
I made lol that sums up my reaction to reading a column by either Bobo or MoU.
RaflW
Oh mah gawd, this is how the Atlanta Journal Constitution captioned a video story about the Census bill. I did not watch the vid, cannot fathom the crapitudinousness of that.
“A group of Republicans are cooking up legislation that could give President Barack Obama an unintentional assist with disagreeable unemployment numbers by eliminating the key economic statistic altogether.”
New, new lows in both-side-do-it…when one side does it, and the press pretends it’ll benefit the other side. Fucksticks.
PIGL
@c u n d gulag: There are only two choices, as I see things. These 27% must be deprived of the vote, or the feudal order sought by the 0.1% must be lovingly embraced. Options 3 and 4 actually exist, but they are even worse, such that I will leave them to your imagination.
var
Well said by God. The Republican party needs to be replaced alright. With a party of the left. Still waiting for one of those.
polyorchnid octopunch
We’re seeing the same playbook up here in Canada; our institutions by which we know ourselves are being systematically dismantled by the Conservative government; ongoing attacks on government scientists (generally environmental and fisheries scientists so far) who learn inconvenient facts, the CBC, sociologists, libraries and archives, etc are designed to attack both the means by which we create self-knowledge and how that knowledge is communicated to the people.
People are getting really angry about some of the crap that’s been going on… others seem to love it. The CPC have a hammerlock on Alberta and southwestern Ontario. It’s at the point where anyone who votes Conservative in the next federal election should be ostracised by their peers.
I blame Preston Manning. His Institute for Democracy has been teaching Conservative legislators how to obstruct parliament for years, as well as importing consultants from the Republican party to lecture Conservative party operatives on how to engage in the politics of personal destruction. He’s a traitor to the country imho.