OMG! Mr. President -- it's a trap!

Chauncey DeVega says, "Color me confused and befuddled" over the epic debt ceiling fight. Actually, he's a bit more exercised than that. Reading his post, one can clearly conclude that he thinks the death of "responsible political parties" and the "healthy democracy" upon which it depends are nigh. "With Mitch McConnell's 'creative' legislative solution to the debt ceiling crisis, the Tea Party GOP's kamikaze suicide bomber game with the U.S. economy has taken a turn from the absurdly dangerous to the theatrically tragic," DeVega writes. "This is how democracy ends with a death of 1,000 cuts ..."

"For a variety of reasons (the changing nature of mass media; the rise of opinion journalism and 24 hour cable news; a failed educational system; the transformation of the Citizen into the Consumer in an era where the State is expected to fail in its responsibilities; and an inability to confront the decline of American Empire in the new Gilded Age) the last few decades have witnessed a crumbling in the collective understanding of what good government and responsible political parties entail. The antics of the Tea Party GOP in the Age of Obama have only accelerated this process."

DeVega calls President Obama "a chronic compromiser" who slavishly rewards Republican behavior in the mistaken belief that they are working in good faith towards the common good. (Cue DeVega's derisive, slightly unhinged laughter.)

"There is a soundtrack playing in the background as President Obama mulls the Tea Party GOP's offer of a parlay in the debt crisis. He is the victim in a horror movie going into the dark room or opening the closet door all the while the audience is yelling at him to run away. He is the trusting soul walking into a clear trap, willing to sign a Faustian bargain that gives his enemies even more ammunition with which to shoot him."

Yes, some of the points made in DeVega's Lament are well taken. But his thesis is overwrought. DeVega (and the legion of pundits also in Blair Witch panic mode) is not in the room. Obama is. I'll trust the president's instincts over the pundits any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Devega has been fully captured by the 24/7 cable news media bubble that he rightly loathes. There's a quick cure for that: Turn off the damn TV set. Believe it or not, American democracy as we know it won't be ending anytime soon. Give our political default position -- scary, rollicking chaos -- a chance.