The party of three-year-olds

When Dr. Jack Block, who died this week, reported his remarkable findings about personality and politics in 2006, Republicans were aghast. Block discovered that modern adult conservatives grow from inhibited, rigid and thin-skinned three year olds.

That nursery-school mentality in today's GOP came into sharp focus last week when Burr voted with every Republican in the Senate against backing the full faith and credit of the US Treasury.

When the White House released its new budget last week, including more spending to create desperately needed jobs, Republican leaders in Congress denounced President Obama for driving up the deficit and demanded that the Democrats halt their “reckless” ways. The deficit numbers — a projected $1.3 trillion in fiscal 2011 alone — are breathtaking. What is even more breathtaking is the Republicans’ cynical refusal to acknowledge that the country would never have gotten into so deep a hole if President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress had not spent years slashing taxes — mainly on the wealthy — and spending with far too little restraint. Unfortunately, the problem does not stop there.

The Republican amnesia and posturing are playing well on the hustings, where Americans are deeply anxious about the economy and fearful of losing their jobs and homes. Far too many Democratic lawmakers are losing their nerve.

Americans should be anxious, for reasons including the huge deficit. But the cold economic truth is this: At a time of high unemployment and fragile growth, the last thing the government should do is to slash spending. That will only drive the economy into deeper trouble.

If North Carolinians return Richard Burr to the Senate this fall, and if more of the country follows suit, we will get everything we deserve and worse. A country run by three-year-olds who couldn't care less about you, unless they can use you to get richer.