As the country uncertainly readies itself for another in our periodic series of national IQ tests, with dubious prospects in the offing, we've been privileged to hear an outpouring of all sorts of malarkey from the GOP and their wholly owned subsidiaries. Much of it is thrown against the wall just to see what sticks. Per usual, we get to hear how conservative principles will re-establish historic growth rates, producing a rising tide that will lift even the meanest of boats. (This is likely to be literally true in coastal cities in the coming decades, but not in the way they mean it.) There's the usual garage about returning to the gold standard, a feature of many GOP state party platforms; in addition to the Pauls and other known point sources, we have a goofy GOP Senate candidate in New Jersey making it a central feature of his campaign. The might find the history of gold in the twentieth century leading up to Bretton Woods, and the aftermath that eventually forced that arch socialist Richard Nixon to pull the plug on gold, enlightening.
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