March 1 was a watershed date in American history, and the media, markets and people yawned. The contrived deficit war is over and the GOP/tea party won.

Conservatives and tea party provocateurs gained their greatest leap toward “small government,” aimed for since the administration of Ronald Reagan. “Sequestration,” a euphemism for “austerity programs” and “structural adjustments,” includes targeting the weakest, poorest, oldest and most vulnerable for sacrifice to the gods of finance, military and markets. The rich get to keep their money and, for now, the middle-class feels immunized.

President Barack Obama and Democrats in this century permitted the Democratic Party to become a branch of Republicanism, enabling the GOP to move quickly to the right and sprout further into the ultra-right tea party, a now separately branded anti-government movement. America became thoroughly right of center.

Athens 2010 arrived in America on March 1. The Great Society is dead. Gatsby lives.

Michael T. Bucci
Damariscotta


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