The US March Toward Social Disintegration

From Paul Krugman's blog in the NY Times:

Think Progress reports on a case in which firefighters allowed a house to burn down because the family hadn’t paid its fee; it also reports on the near-universal support of conservative writers for the fire department’s position.

This is essentially the same as denying someone essential medical care because he doesn’t have insurance. So the question is, do you want to live in the kind of society in which this happens?

What I find very odd about this is that the lurch to the right in the US over the last 30 years was powered by the "family values" Christian right, i.e. social conservatives. But the very book which they consider to be "the word of God" tells them that yes indeed, they are their brother's keeper. But here they pursue a social and political agenda that spits in the very face of their so-called religion. Bizarre.

I guess the religious right has learned to skip over the pages about Cain & Abel, Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where he extended the law from 'love your neighbor' to include your enemies. The "family values" people have re-interpreted all this to say "love your immediate family and shun everybody who doesn't sign up for the exact same religious ideology as you have". Wow! That's "literal" interpretation of the Bible that most people can't find in that book.

What is happening is that the very social fabric of the US is being shredded by those who sign up for the right wing nonsense of libertarianism and this new "love only yourself and your closest religious cohort" school of the Bible.