Tower of Babble at the Cliff

American disarray is becoming Biblical in the “confusion of tongues” at the fiscal cliff. The builders of the nation’s future seem cursed by inability to find a common language.

Boehner’s gang rejects the President’s proposal as “completely unbalanced and unreasonable” while beyond the Wall Street Journal paywall Mitch McConnell rants about tearing up the social safety net.

Wasn’t there a recent national election in which the people spoke, if not with one voice, clearly enough to set an agenda?  In a tour to keep that momentum going, the President tells workers at a toy factory about the GOP’s holding middle-class tax cuts hostage to preserve those of the rich:

“I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice list for Washington. That’s sort of like the lump of coal you get for Christmas. That’s a Scrooge Christmas...

“The reason I’m here is because I want the American people to urge Congress soon in the next week the next two weeks to begin the work we have by doing what we all agree on. Both parties agree that we should extend the middle-class tax cuts.

“I want you to call, I want you to send an e-mail, post on their Facebook wall.”

In these times, the social media may be the best hope for magnifying the voice of the people with messages that can’t be misunderstood. Tweets and e-mail can heighten the telegrams and telephone calls of yore that conveyed the mood beyond Washington.

Meanwhile, conservative cheerleaders keep urging their Congressional heroes to stay the course:

“The GOP's message this week to the Dems can be summed up in two words: Grow up. Only after the president has definitively shown that the Democrats prefer the politics of adolescence should the GOP begin passing out parachutes for the group jump over the cliff.”

In how many languages can they say “Geronimo?”