A mere simulacrum.........................................

"Way back in January, when it emerged that Beyoncé had treated us to the first ever lip-synched national anthem at a presidential inauguration, I suggested in this space that this strange pseudo-performance embodied the decay of America’s political institutions from the real thing into mere simulacrum. But that applies to government 'crises,' too — such as the Obamacare 'rollout,'  the debt 'ceiling,' and the federal 'shutdown,' to name only the three current railroad tracks to which the virtuous damsel of Big Government has been simultaneously tied by evil mustache-twirling Republicans.
-Mark Steyn, as excerpted from here

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