That Sinking Feeling ("Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" - Chapters XI, XII, and Unlucky XIII)

Here at The Big Con we have a theory. The right has cast a spell over millions of good, decent Americans: they've convinced them that "conservatism" is the road to security for their families. Most of these people have figured out that at least one conservative - the President of the United States - can't deliver. But conservatives have a strategy to turn that little inconvenience into a mere speed bump on their way to continued power: they talk about Ronald Reagan. "The Gipper" was wise, strong, beloved. "The Great Communicator" will make it all better. In fact, two nights from now, the Republican candidates will have their first debate - at the Ronald Reagan Library in Santa Barbara. Each will keep intoning, like a mantra, that they're "Ronald Reagan conservatives."

If that's true, God help us.

As my boss here at Campaign for America's future says, "Each of Bush’s signature failures – the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Schaivo and stem cells – can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them - but to the basic concepts that Reagan championed. The Gipper can’t lead Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase, his conservatism is the problem, not the solution."

(If you're one of my readers in the D.C. area, by the way, I hope you'll join us for a historic luncheon debate [1] in which Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect [2]

will be arguing that very position against one of the conservative movement's leading lights, William Kristol of the Weekly Standard [3] - the good people who brought you the Iraq War.)

To break the spell, we've been trying to hit people in the gut - not through abstractions about ideology, but plain, simple messages about how conservative government has made us all less safe. Messages you can forward straight to your Republican-voting Aunt Millie. Messages to break the spell.

Consider [4] our [4] epic [5] ten [6]-part [7] series [8] on [9] the [10] national [11] epidemic [12] of sinkholes.

And welcome to parts ten thorugh twelve.

It turns out May 1 has been a banner day for these gaping maws that open up underneath the earth, swallowing people, buildings, and cars - and which are the direct result of the core Reaganite ideology that taxes are evil.

In sunny Durham [13]:

Eyewitness News first told you about the sinkhole at Hope Valley Farms back in February when the city came and filled it in - but that didn't fix the problem.

The sinkhole has re-opened leaving a crater big enough to swallow a grown man and holding enough water to drown young children...

The sinkhole is cordoned off and there is an orange plastic fence around the opening.

City officials say the property belongs to an adjacent daycare facility and they are notifying its owners of the problem.

Placid Des Moines [14] (watch the video [15]):

It took just seconds and the hole swallowed two 15-foot trees.
The hole is now about 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The yard caved in right where the Divelbiss children often played in their sandbox.

"There was the edge of the sandbox right there. If the kids had been there, they would have got swallowed up," he said...

Insurance does not cover this kind of damage, NewsChannel 8 reported.

And mighty New York [16]:

A water main break created a gaping sinkhole and flooded streets in the Rockaways section of Queens....

About a foot of water spread to several streets causing basements in the area to flood. The break created a gaping sinkhole in the middle of the intersectionx

I don't pretend that sinkholes are the focus of evil in the world - I don't need to tell you that every day in Baghdad is a Far Rockaway sinkhole times a million, with our finest young men and women the victims.

I'm just trying to hit you close to home here - with a tiny representative sample of what happens when you say "government isn't the solution, government is the problem," and, as every Republican presidential candidate will be singing Thursday night, that cutting taxes is the measure of a great civilization. Tell Aunt Millie. Make her want to wretch watching the Republicans debate Thursday night.