By Matthew Rothschild, August 17, 2011
He said it would be “almost treasonous” for Bernanke to print more money between now and the election, even though printing more money is about the only thing that’ll get the economy going at this point.
And Perry added a kind of menace we haven’t seen even in our nastiest presidential campaigns: "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”
What is that but the celebration of vigilante violence, bordering on a death threat?
Treating someone “pretty ugly down in Texas” conjured up, at least in my mind, the image of James Byrd, the black man in Tyler, Texas, who was tied to a pick up truck and dragged to his death by racists back in 1998.
At best, Perry’s remark betrayed his adolescent macho playground bluster.
And didn’t we have enough of that with eight years of “Bring ’em on” Bush”?
Perry might be even worse, as he’s talked of the need to prepare for armed conflict with Russia, China, and India.
“We are now confronted with the rise of new economic and military powerhouses in China and India, as well as a Russia that is increasingly aggressive and troublesome to its neighbors and former satellite nations that are struggling to maintain their relatively newfound independence,” he wrote in his campaign book, Fed Up, as Robert Dreyfuss has noted. “There is no reason to believe that armed conflict with any major power is imminent, but the world is rapidly changing, and the United States must be prepared for the ramifications of shifting balances of power.”
Starting World War III wouldn’t exactly make Washington “inconsequential” in people’s lives, as he vowed to do the day he declared for the Presidency.
And anyway, he just wants to make Washington “inconsequential” so it can’t regulate business.
Thuggishness, recklessness, and market fundamentalism combined with real rightwing fundamentalism: That’s Rick Perry, for you.
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