Does anyone else see the eerie similarities between the end of the USSR and what may well be the end of the USSC (as in, US Stubborn Conservatives)?  Obama called the current crisis the result of a “failed ideology.”  But if you are a true believer, a card-carrying Party member, this is a whole lot worse.  In fact, in some deeply, er, faithful conservative corners this is the End of Days stuff. 

So cast your mind back to the glory days of that most revered of former USSC Supreme leaders –  Reagan – and remember:

- The army had been hunkered down in Afghanistan for years
- Military spending, poor central planning and rampant corruption had the economy teetering on the brink of disaster and the average comrade scared to death
- There was a moderate old party hack floundering around trying to rescue Orthodoxy from the supreme incompetence of the current Supreme leader
- The hard liners became ever more recalcitrant, and fell back on platitudes of dead leaders from a bygone era (Old Joe wouldn’t let this happen!)
- There was an ideological war at the Parliament building … where the turn-over rate, incidentally, was actually greater than the US Congress
- There was wild speculation that the country’s fundamental political structure was being legislated into oblivion
- And worst of all, in the face of just too much real-world evidence the central tenets of the Party philosophy were being judged an abysmal failure

Hyperbole?  Consider this: once we get past all the fireworks associated with this “bail-out” bill, Congress is likely to turn its attention on the task of stabilizing our financial markets for the long term.  Hmmm, it all ends with the rebuilding regulatory walls to free us from the tyranny of market abuse?  That just might turn the toppling of the Berlin Wall into one of the most post-ironic metaphors of all time … or at least this month.
 
I dunno know.  Maybe I'm the only one shouting at the Republican TV-talking heads: it’s your world view, stupid!  But I kinda doubt it.