Fiscal Crisis in US and the World Over? Should We Get Happy?

Like many folks I breathed a sigh of relief when the Republicans ever so reluctantly agreed to step away from the precipice on Wednesday. But we're not out of danger, as this column "The Long March of the American Right" by Simon Johnson in The New York Times  chronicles. 

The American Right (followed by the Canadian Right a few steps behind) has been working toward destruction of government for years.  Johnson writes: "The mainstream narrative is that the problem is “dysfunctional government” or “paralysis in Washington.” That’s true, up to a point, but the real problem is the steady decline in legitimacy of the federal government – and the way this is related to what has happened on the right of the political spectrum."

Some how people have to come to understand that government is there it govern, and that everyone of us has a stake in its success.  Otherwise the breather that the last minute arrangements this week are just a temporarily successful reanimation procedure, like this one from the series House. MD.  I don't think  we have any right to "get happy."  The Judgment Day is still looming--in January when the current US arrangement comes up for renewal or in October 2015 when Canada is supposed to elect a new government.