Just as almost every family has that crazy uncle, every
legislative body in the U.S. probably has their Bob Marshall, the almost
comically inane political representative whose main calling in life seems to be
agitating the status-quo with ideas built upon fear and anxiety.
It didn’t take long for Virginia’s own Del. Bob Marshall to
‘Marshall’ his way into the New Year with a bill, House Joint Resolution 590[1],
that would study the creation of an alternate Virginia currency in silver and
gold coins, and he’s for real.[2]
Marshall stated his paranoid factoid for the day, “The
stability of our money system can be undermined in any number of ways.” His
bill points to the Great Depression and “hyperinflation” as potential causes.
The irony shouldn’t be lost that just as the overwhelming
majority of climate scientists are noting the dangers of human-induced climate
change, politicians like Bob Marshall roll their eyes and lambast the idea as incorrect
or even “crazy.”[3]
Unsurprisingly, those in the Virginia General Assembly with
reason (i.e., the Democrats, at least some of them) have called Marshall’s
legislation a “waste of time.”[4]
Indeed, this is Marshall’s M.O., wasting Virginia’s time and taxpayer dollars,
another irony that shouldn’t be lost!
Isn’t this the Republican Party way, however, to cry to the
heavens when they haven’t gotten their way, to suggest that the rules should be
changed because they don’t benefit the Republicans at this moment in time? I
have a vivid image in my mind of the cartoon baby of my youth whose face turns
red and whose cries shriek out whenever the baby hasn’t gotten his way. This is
the GOP today.
Beyond the fact that state currencies would
disproportionately benefit state elites who would have control over the money,
we’ve already experimented with separate currencies and to say the least, it
was an epic failure.
But history for Bob Marshall holds a number of inconvenient
truths that he and his Republican colleagues seem only too willing to ignore to
support their ideological ends.
Yes, let’s have separate state currencies and next, let’s go
to war with one another over abortion rights! Wow, does that sound similar to
another point in American history?
There will probably always be Bob Marshall’s in the
legislature of Virginia, and so I hope there will always be enough sense and
factual historical memory to nullify their frantic ideas.
[1] http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HJ590
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/in-case-of-emergency-pr-william-delegate-wants-to-study-a-separate-virginia-currency/2013/01/28/b70f43fa-6741-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_blog.html
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hEeZ2DsZ7o
[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/bill-to-create-alternate-currency-for-va-inches-forward/2013/01/25/8753b766-66fd-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment