The Reality
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Blame America First Speech - A Test
And the question that we answer tonight: can America meet this great challenge?
As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish: “Did we come all this way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy, and Korea, and in Valley Forge for this?”
Like Theodore Roosevelt, they know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in. This I say to you tonight is the real voice of America. In this year ███, this is the message it will broadcast to America and to the world.
Let's never forget that despite her faults, America is a great nation. And America is great because her people are great. America is in trouble today not because her people have failed but because her leaders have failed. And what America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
The great question Americans must answer by their votes in November is this: Whether we shall continue for four more years the policies of the last ██ years. And this is my answer to that question.
When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war in ████████ with no end in sight;
When the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy;
When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness;
When a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence;
And when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration -- then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.
And let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth -- to see it like it is, and tell it like it is -- to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth -- that's what we will do. We've had enough of big promises and little action. The time has come for honest government in the United States of America.
Look at our problems abroad. Do you realize that we face the stark truth that we are worse off in every area of the world tonight than we were when President ███████ left office eight years ago. That's the record. And there is only one answer to such a record of failure and that is a complete housecleaning of those responsible for the failures of that record. The answer is a complete re-appraisal of America's policies in every section of the world.
We shall begin with the war in █████. We all hope in this room that there is a chance that current negotiations may bring an honorable end to that war.
For four years this Administration has had at its disposal the greatest military and economic advantage that one nation has ever had over another in any war in history. For four years, America's fighting men have set a record for courage and sacrifice unsurpassed in our history. For four years, this Administration has had the support of the [Congress] for the objective of seeking an honorable end to the struggle. But never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively.
And if after all of this time and all of this sacrifice and all of this support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership -- not tied to the mistakes and the policies of the past. That is what we offer to America.
And I pledge to you tonight that the first priority foreign policy objective of our next Administration will be to bring an honorable end to the war in █████. We shall not stop there -- we need a policy to prevent more █████s. What I call for is not a new isolationism. It is a new internationalism in which America enlists its allies and its friends around the world in those struggles in which their interest is as great as ours.
We do not seek domination over any other country. We believe deeply in our ideas, but we believe they should travel on their own power and not on the power of our arms. We believe this should be an era of peaceful competition, not only in the productivity of our factories but in the quality of our ideas.
We extend the hand of friendship to all people, to the █████ people, to the Chinese people, to all people in the world. And we shall work toward the goal of an open world -- open skies, open cities, open hearts, open minds.
The next eight years, my friends, this period in which we are entering, I think we will have the greatest opportunity for world peace but also face the greatest danger of world war of any time in our history.
I believe we must have peace. I believe that we can have peace, but I do not underestimate the difficulty of this task. Because you see the art of preserving peace is greater than that of waging war and much more demanding. It is that kind of experience and it is that kind of leadership that America needs today, and that we will give to America with your help.
My friends, America is a great nation. And it is time we started to act like a great nation around the world. It is ironic to note when we were a small nation -- weak militarily and poor economically -- America was respected. And the reason was that America stood for something more powerful than military strength or economic wealth.
The American Revolution was a shining example of freedom in action which caught the imagination of the world. Today, too often, America is an example to be avoided and not followed. A nation that can't keep the peace at home won't be trusted to keep the peace abroad. A nation which can't manage its own economy can't tell others how to manage theirs.
If we are to restore prestige and respect for America abroad, the place to begin is at home in the United States of America.
My friends, we live in an age of revolution in America and in the world. And to find the answers to our problems, let us turn to a revolution, a revolution that will never grow old. The world's greatest continuing revolution, the American Revolution. The American Revolution was and is dedicated to progress, but our founders recognized that the first requisite of progress is order. So let us have order in America -- not the order that suppresses dissent and discourages change but the order which guarantees the right to dissent and provides the basis for peaceful change.
We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.
And now our opponents will be offering more of the same
But to put it bluntly, we are on the wrong road -- and it's time to take a new road, to progress.
Again, we turn to the American Revolution for our answer. We do not fire a shot heard 'round the world but we shall light the lamp of hope in millions of homes across this land in which there is no hope today. And that great light shining out from America will again become a beacon of hope for all those in the world who seek freedom and opportunity.
I see a day when Americans are once again proud of their flag. When once again at home and abroad, it is honored as the world's greatest symbol of liberty and justice. I see a day when the President of the United States is respected and his office is honored because it is worthy of respect and worthy of honor.
Because the time when one man or a few leaders could save America is gone. We need tonight nothing less than the total commitment and the total mobilization of the American people if we are to succeed.
My fellow Americans, the long dark night for America is about to end.
The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn --a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.
¶ 3:02 AM 0 comments
In this highly partisan speech from the past, the candidate for President attacked the previous administration and war President for giving aid and comfort to our enemies. He attacked America as: "lost", "adrift", led by liars and fools, "failures", our prestige "squandered", our military broken. He said that a needless war was tearing at the fabric of society. He called for progress, he called for peace, for negotiations with our enemies abroad, intelligent diplomacy, he called for his party to sweep out all the deadwood of the majority. It's an angry speech. Unhinged, even.
Or, that's how conservative pundits would describe this speech if it were given today. This is merely a test. Who delivered this speech? Too obvious clues are blacked out. The answer is below. Don't cheat:The choice we make this year will determine not only the future of America but the future of peace and freedom in the world for the █████ third of the █████ Century.
And the question that we answer tonight: can America meet this great challenge?
As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish: “Did we come all this way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy, and Korea, and in Valley Forge for this?”
Like Theodore Roosevelt, they know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in. This I say to you tonight is the real voice of America. In this year ███, this is the message it will broadcast to America and to the world.
Let's never forget that despite her faults, America is a great nation. And America is great because her people are great. America is in trouble today not because her people have failed but because her leaders have failed. And what America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
The great question Americans must answer by their votes in November is this: Whether we shall continue for four more years the policies of the last ██ years. And this is my answer to that question.
When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war in ████████ with no end in sight;
When the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy;
When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness;
When a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence;
And when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration -- then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.
And let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth -- to see it like it is, and tell it like it is -- to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth -- that's what we will do. We've had enough of big promises and little action. The time has come for honest government in the United States of America.
Look at our problems abroad. Do you realize that we face the stark truth that we are worse off in every area of the world tonight than we were when President ███████ left office eight years ago. That's the record. And there is only one answer to such a record of failure and that is a complete housecleaning of those responsible for the failures of that record. The answer is a complete re-appraisal of America's policies in every section of the world.
We shall begin with the war in █████. We all hope in this room that there is a chance that current negotiations may bring an honorable end to that war.
For four years this Administration has had at its disposal the greatest military and economic advantage that one nation has ever had over another in any war in history. For four years, America's fighting men have set a record for courage and sacrifice unsurpassed in our history. For four years, this Administration has had the support of the [Congress] for the objective of seeking an honorable end to the struggle. But never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively.
And if after all of this time and all of this sacrifice and all of this support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership -- not tied to the mistakes and the policies of the past. That is what we offer to America.
And I pledge to you tonight that the first priority foreign policy objective of our next Administration will be to bring an honorable end to the war in █████. We shall not stop there -- we need a policy to prevent more █████s. What I call for is not a new isolationism. It is a new internationalism in which America enlists its allies and its friends around the world in those struggles in which their interest is as great as ours.
We do not seek domination over any other country. We believe deeply in our ideas, but we believe they should travel on their own power and not on the power of our arms. We believe this should be an era of peaceful competition, not only in the productivity of our factories but in the quality of our ideas.
We extend the hand of friendship to all people, to the █████ people, to the Chinese people, to all people in the world. And we shall work toward the goal of an open world -- open skies, open cities, open hearts, open minds.
The next eight years, my friends, this period in which we are entering, I think we will have the greatest opportunity for world peace but also face the greatest danger of world war of any time in our history.
I believe we must have peace. I believe that we can have peace, but I do not underestimate the difficulty of this task. Because you see the art of preserving peace is greater than that of waging war and much more demanding. It is that kind of experience and it is that kind of leadership that America needs today, and that we will give to America with your help.
My friends, America is a great nation. And it is time we started to act like a great nation around the world. It is ironic to note when we were a small nation -- weak militarily and poor economically -- America was respected. And the reason was that America stood for something more powerful than military strength or economic wealth.
The American Revolution was a shining example of freedom in action which caught the imagination of the world. Today, too often, America is an example to be avoided and not followed. A nation that can't keep the peace at home won't be trusted to keep the peace abroad. A nation which can't manage its own economy can't tell others how to manage theirs.
If we are to restore prestige and respect for America abroad, the place to begin is at home in the United States of America.
My friends, we live in an age of revolution in America and in the world. And to find the answers to our problems, let us turn to a revolution, a revolution that will never grow old. The world's greatest continuing revolution, the American Revolution. The American Revolution was and is dedicated to progress, but our founders recognized that the first requisite of progress is order. So let us have order in America -- not the order that suppresses dissent and discourages change but the order which guarantees the right to dissent and provides the basis for peaceful change.
We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.
And now our opponents will be offering more of the same
But to put it bluntly, we are on the wrong road -- and it's time to take a new road, to progress.
Again, we turn to the American Revolution for our answer. We do not fire a shot heard 'round the world but we shall light the lamp of hope in millions of homes across this land in which there is no hope today. And that great light shining out from America will again become a beacon of hope for all those in the world who seek freedom and opportunity.
I see a day when Americans are once again proud of their flag. When once again at home and abroad, it is honored as the world's greatest symbol of liberty and justice. I see a day when the President of the United States is respected and his office is honored because it is worthy of respect and worthy of honor.
Because the time when one man or a few leaders could save America is gone. We need tonight nothing less than the total commitment and the total mobilization of the American people if we are to succeed.
My fellow Americans, the long dark night for America is about to end.
The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn --a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.
Richard Nixon, 1968 - Republican National Convention
¶ 3:02 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 22, 2006
The Difference Makes a Victory
In his post here, I talk about how Democrats need to present and fight for the differences between the parties in order to win. Most Americans believe in our version of the American Dream. We need to draw the lines of division, a'la Armando's call to arms - Lincoln's call to arms.
But now I'm thinking also about how only secular liberals, in this paradigm, can be the ones to defeat Islamic fundamentalist radicals like Osama bin Laden. Of course there is a place for progressive Christians and other religious folks in the Democratic Party - yes, of course. Golly, Jesus was a liberal after all. But we Democrats fundamentally believe in the separation of Church and State. And that is key here.
George Bush's Republican party doesn't. Period. What is Bush's vision? Bush's GOP is increasingly fighting politically for a One Party State and ideologically they wish it to be a radically conservative Puritanical, fundamentalist Christian empire.
Six thousand miles away, Osama's al Qaeda is fighting politically for a one party state (Caliphate) and ideologically they wish it to be a radically conservative Puritanical fundamentalist Muslim empire.
The difference there is religious.
Already, Bush has gone out of his way to stress that this is not a religious war. "It is not a crusade" - he said... after he slipped and said what he believed... when he said that it was a crusade. But now the record shows it's 'not a religous war.' Okay.
So, if we presuppose that in the age of extremes that we are living in, that Nietzsche was right and that extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions. Then the only difference between GWB and OBL's vision of a perfect empire would be one word. Muslim/Christian. And of course this is not a religious war.
On the other hand, the actual opposite of a one party state is a Democractic system of many parties with debates and accountability and oversight and checks & balances.
The opposite of radically conservative is moderately liberal.
The opposite of Puritanical is broad-minded.
The oppostite of fundamentalist Muslim is secular.
The opposite of empire is de-centralized community.
I dunno, but that sounds like the blogosphere, or more specifically, the Democratic party I want to help build. ¶ 11:23 PM 0 comments
But now I'm thinking also about how only secular liberals, in this paradigm, can be the ones to defeat Islamic fundamentalist radicals like Osama bin Laden. Of course there is a place for progressive Christians and other religious folks in the Democratic Party - yes, of course. Golly, Jesus was a liberal after all. But we Democrats fundamentally believe in the separation of Church and State. And that is key here.
George Bush's Republican party doesn't. Period. What is Bush's vision? Bush's GOP is increasingly fighting politically for a One Party State and ideologically they wish it to be a radically conservative Puritanical, fundamentalist Christian empire.
Six thousand miles away, Osama's al Qaeda is fighting politically for a one party state (Caliphate) and ideologically they wish it to be a radically conservative Puritanical fundamentalist Muslim empire.
The difference there is religious.
Already, Bush has gone out of his way to stress that this is not a religious war. "It is not a crusade" - he said... after he slipped and said what he believed... when he said that it was a crusade. But now the record shows it's 'not a religous war.' Okay.
So, if we presuppose that in the age of extremes that we are living in, that Nietzsche was right and that extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions. Then the only difference between GWB and OBL's vision of a perfect empire would be one word. Muslim/Christian. And of course this is not a religious war.
On the other hand, the actual opposite of a one party state is a Democractic system of many parties with debates and accountability and oversight and checks & balances.
The opposite of radically conservative is moderately liberal.
The opposite of Puritanical is broad-minded.
The oppostite of fundamentalist Muslim is secular.
The opposite of empire is de-centralized community.
I dunno, but that sounds like the blogosphere, or more specifically, the Democratic party I want to help build. ¶ 11:23 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
My Contribution to the 'Open Letter to ABC' Fight
There are many great minds working on the next stage of payback to Disney & ABC over the shameful 9/11 political propaganda they aired to protect Republicans. If you want to know what Disney should expect from our rage at the legislative level, the legal angle, the PR angle and the financial fronts in this battle, then check it out at Open Letter to ABC. We're on it.
For my part, I have talents to lend to this fight - I can hit them where it hurts. The brand identity of Disney is that effing mouse. That stupid, vapid mouse is holy to those clowns. In our nation's judicial code, copyright laws and intellectual property rights have been extended for the singlular case of Disney to protect that mouse. Well, f that mouse. I'm gonna rebrand Mickey Mouse, and here's how. Namely, mad rhymes.
And there you have it. Mickey Mouse = Motherfucker.
Go here and recommend it, give it five stars, add it to your favorites, share it and blog it. Mickey Mouse and Motherfucker will become as synonymous as snakes and similar-type planes.
Death to the mouse!
¶ 10:05 PM 0 comments
For my part, I have talents to lend to this fight - I can hit them where it hurts. The brand identity of Disney is that effing mouse. That stupid, vapid mouse is holy to those clowns. In our nation's judicial code, copyright laws and intellectual property rights have been extended for the singlular case of Disney to protect that mouse. Well, f that mouse. I'm gonna rebrand Mickey Mouse, and here's how. Namely, mad rhymes.
And there you have it. Mickey Mouse = Motherfucker.
Go here and recommend it, give it five stars, add it to your favorites, share it and blog it. Mickey Mouse and Motherfucker will become as synonymous as snakes and similar-type planes.
Death to the mouse!
¶ 10:05 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 08, 2006
The History of Bush Foretold
It got me thinking. What else can we now see down the road? I ask myself that a lot. A chessplayer must have this strategic skill. It comes from knowing the patterns, the sequences, moves or events and how they tend to follow from one another. This hard data is balanced with an understanding of the psychology of your opponent and the currents of the context.
Merely loading a historian with all the relevant analogous situations and storylines from all of history as if his head was Deep Blue taking on Gary Kasparov, will never be enough to make the historian a prophet... or a profit. Not even Deep Blue wins every time. But I do think some of us on the left have a pretty good read of this President. "We know his soul." Now we can extrapolate a little.
The question I mull over like a delicious single malt is where on the list of worst Presidents ever, the boy king Bush Junior will fall like so much dead meat. Consider the competition:
James Polk's (1845-1849) reputation among historians is one for unparalleled deviousness thanks to his manufacturing a war with Mexico and his destructive and covert pro-slavery views. A liberal Illinois congressman once called him a liar on the floor of the House of Representatives saying that President Polk's war, "was from beginning to end, the sheerest deception" and that Polk himself was "a bewildered, confounded and miserably perplexed man." That Congressman, Abraham Lincoln, was surely giving aid and comfort to America's enemies in saying those words (according to Joe Lieberman). Polk was hated and he hated the people. At least Polk had the decency to only serve one term and then die shortly after leaving office, providing a graceful exit that spared him the ignominy which he and other pro-slavery conservatives deserve.
Bush's reputation will probably have no such reprieve. Unless he dies in a meeting with President-elect John Edwards. Though I'm still hoping for a full cabinet murder-suicide.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) oversaw the ridiculous puritanical idiocy of prohibition, the rise of anti-immigration lynch mobs, the rise of murderous KKK local government in the South, a disastrous and pointless invasion and occupation of the Philippines finally reaching the breaking point -- not to mention the total collapse of the American economy and a staggering Great Depression dragging the dollar’s value down to where it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. That's a lot of failure for one sentence.
It remains to be seen if Bush will produce another depression, but not even Hoover was able to rally 1 billion people around the world to despise the United States the way Bush did. And he did it while simultaneously pissing on our closest and oldest allies too! Credit where credit is due, Bush was the first President since Hoover to lose jobs over the course of his presidency, so maybe Bush is on his way to catching Hoover in one of the all time greats' greatest strength -- shattering economies.
Just about every president has some charges of corruption leveled against him, though Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) is labeled the worst in this regard for graft and corruption on a gargantuan scale including a kickback scandal that led to the resignation of his secretary of war under the shadow of impeachment. Lots of Presidents mishandled Reconstruction after the Civil War, Grant was the first and the worst. Yet these scandals produced no indictments of Cabinet secretaries and only one of a White House aide, who was later acquitted. It's not like the secretary stole 8.8 billion dollars the way Bush's cronies did in the CPA. Salvaging Grant's legacy would be his positive racial stance, the fact that the man really could write a hell of a book and win a huge ass war. Three things Dubya... is working on. Okay. Sucks at.
By contrast, the most scandal-ridden administration in the modern era, apart from Nixon's, was Ronald Reagan's, now widely remembered through a haze of delusional nostalgia as a paragon of virtue. A total of twenty-nine Reagan officials, including White House national security adviser Robert McFarlane and deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, were convicted on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra terrorist-appeasement program. An illegal lobbying and looting scandal inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development forced three Cabinet officers - HUD Sec. Samuel Pierce, AG Edwin Meese and Sec. Def. Caspar Weinberger - to flee their posts under clouds of charges.
In contrast, not a single official in the Clinton administration was even indicted over his or her White House duties, despite repeated high-profile investigations and a successful, highly partisan impeachment drive. Many aspects of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson are now viewed as a partisan witchhunt almost as baseless as that of Bill Clinton. Almost.
But. George W. Bush and his similarly incurious Republican sheeple in Congress are matched by an equally feckless and quisling press corps that behave like a claque suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Because the Bush Administration enjoys such a fiercely partisan and loyal majority in Congress and such an uninterested media (vain, addicted to trivialities, merrily content to stenograph for conservative propaganda), Bush does not face required oversight and therefore he is most likely safe for decades while his records are sealed.
Bush didn't get off scot free however, in Scooter Libby’s indictment, Bush still has the highest level official indicted while in office since the Grant Administration - not bad. But all of the Congressional scandals and Duke Cunningham / Abramoff / Ralph Reed scandals may be of his Republican party, but they're not of his particular Administration. For the shit to hit the fan on this Administration, it would take a Democratic Majority in Congress out for blood and a media culture that abandons the "he-said, she-said" style of reporting - and the utter abdication of responsibility that is it's byproduct.
It would take a civic and media climate where adjudication of fact and respect for the rule of law again become a virtue. In other words: not in America, not in my lifetime. When Bush's records are unsealed though, that'll be the day. It'll be a day 1 million years in the future. They'll be opened by a brave expedition of inter-galactic squid-headed space creatures from the Dagobah System who come to excavate the wasteland Planet #3's burned out ruins.
So Bush won't be remembered in his lifetime for his corruption scandals, but Bush surely deserves to be known now as the most despotic of Presidents. Those few times when Congress has passed legislation to limit his assertions of absolute power, Bush has resorted to issuing constitutionally dubious "signing statements," which declare, by fiat, how he will interpret and execute the law in question - even when that interpretation flagrantly violates the will of Congress. Ha! Earlier loathed presidents, including Jackson, freaked people out merely by offering their own view of the Constitution in order to justify vetoing congressional acts.
But dude, Bush doesn't bother with that! He signs the legislation (eliminating any risk that Congress will overturn a veto), and then goes on and governs however the hell he pleases - using the "signing statements" as if they were line-item vetoes, stating that he just sees the law differently. Serious. It's a brazen kick to the nuts of the founding fathers who crafted the Constitution in retaliation of identical behavior from King George. In those instances when Bush's violations of federal law have come to light, as over warrantless domestic spying, the White House has devised a novel solution in four steps : Stonewall investigations into the law breaking, put the leaker in jail, accuse the media of treason, and then ask a submissive gimp Congress to simply rewrite the law being broken so that the shits no longer illegal. Stunning. Orwellian. The Sith are a powerful party.
Back to the other contenders: Akin to George W. Bunnypants, President Warren Harding (1920-1923) is remembered for being wholly unqualified for the job. A amiable dolt, steered by corrupt conservative Republican puppeteers and party power-brokers, his administration collapsed under the Teapot Dome scandal where public land in Wyoming was given to shady oilmen connected to the Secretary of the Interior. Horrifically stupid, racist, and isolationist, Harding was a drunk and also a compulsive gambler. Harding literally gambled away the White House flatware while pissdrunk. Harding's Presidency is a model for a "failure," but again, lucky for him he died only a few years in to his one awful term after he ate some bad crab. Aw.
James Buchanan's (1857-1861) southern elitist partisanship, mixed with his effete God-complex helped further divide the country which was teetering on the edge of Civil War. His inaction also helped further enflame sectional violence. Ultimately he failed to avert the Civil War. His rudderless leadership ruined his party, and being such a weak foppish clown, he was prone to frequent bouts of depression which invariably affected his Presidenting. The single decision to not deal with succession might be the worst single decision ever made by a President.
Ah, but wait. In ten years we'll see clearly whose decision was worse; Buchanan's decision (to allow Civil War) or Bush's decision to invade Iraq... for no good reason and then proceed to remake the Middle East in the image of.... of a hornets nest, hit with a cat, swung by it's tail. (It'll take 10 years for the hornets and the cat do do their thing.)
But really folks, it comes down to this, in a time of great civil strife, President Buchanan did not have the guts to act - Bush Junior did.
When America was attacked by Osama bin Laden -- for Bush to stare in the face of that historical moment, with the entire world rallied in compassion, infused with a feeling of unprecedented, almost ethereal harmony with the grieving Americans - compatriots in the human race; that singular time of supreme clarity on the whole human condition, and the unfathomable interconnectivity of such a fragile species, on this delicate planet, all of us eager for positive reinvention and rededication to humanity, for Bush to look into the face of that, pause, and then rape it in the ear, kidney punch it, take a dump on its desk and then go and do the EXACT WRONG THING in order to destroy the world, takes guts... no it takes more than guts. It takes atom-splitting stupidity and a sheer, unrelenting hatred for all that is good and decent.
Bush wins. ¶ 10:34 PM 0 comments
After rereading this post of mine called The Next Deal, I really have to point out, hot damn. This is from a year ago. It's scarily prescient if I may say so myself. Go on and read it again, for the first time.
It got me thinking. What else can we now see down the road? I ask myself that a lot. A chessplayer must have this strategic skill. It comes from knowing the patterns, the sequences, moves or events and how they tend to follow from one another. This hard data is balanced with an understanding of the psychology of your opponent and the currents of the context.
Merely loading a historian with all the relevant analogous situations and storylines from all of history as if his head was Deep Blue taking on Gary Kasparov, will never be enough to make the historian a prophet... or a profit. Not even Deep Blue wins every time. But I do think some of us on the left have a pretty good read of this President. "We know his soul." Now we can extrapolate a little.
The question I mull over like a delicious single malt is where on the list of worst Presidents ever, the boy king Bush Junior will fall like so much dead meat. Consider the competition:
James Polk's (1845-1849) reputation among historians is one for unparalleled deviousness thanks to his manufacturing a war with Mexico and his destructive and covert pro-slavery views. A liberal Illinois congressman once called him a liar on the floor of the House of Representatives saying that President Polk's war, "was from beginning to end, the sheerest deception" and that Polk himself was "a bewildered, confounded and miserably perplexed man." That Congressman, Abraham Lincoln, was surely giving aid and comfort to America's enemies in saying those words (according to Joe Lieberman). Polk was hated and he hated the people. At least Polk had the decency to only serve one term and then die shortly after leaving office, providing a graceful exit that spared him the ignominy which he and other pro-slavery conservatives deserve.
Bush's reputation will probably have no such reprieve. Unless he dies in a meeting with President-elect John Edwards. Though I'm still hoping for a full cabinet murder-suicide.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) oversaw the ridiculous puritanical idiocy of prohibition, the rise of anti-immigration lynch mobs, the rise of murderous KKK local government in the South, a disastrous and pointless invasion and occupation of the Philippines finally reaching the breaking point -- not to mention the total collapse of the American economy and a staggering Great Depression dragging the dollar’s value down to where it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. That's a lot of failure for one sentence.
It remains to be seen if Bush will produce another depression, but not even Hoover was able to rally 1 billion people around the world to despise the United States the way Bush did. And he did it while simultaneously pissing on our closest and oldest allies too! Credit where credit is due, Bush was the first President since Hoover to lose jobs over the course of his presidency, so maybe Bush is on his way to catching Hoover in one of the all time greats' greatest strength -- shattering economies.
Just about every president has some charges of corruption leveled against him, though Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) is labeled the worst in this regard for graft and corruption on a gargantuan scale including a kickback scandal that led to the resignation of his secretary of war under the shadow of impeachment. Lots of Presidents mishandled Reconstruction after the Civil War, Grant was the first and the worst. Yet these scandals produced no indictments of Cabinet secretaries and only one of a White House aide, who was later acquitted. It's not like the secretary stole 8.8 billion dollars the way Bush's cronies did in the CPA. Salvaging Grant's legacy would be his positive racial stance, the fact that the man really could write a hell of a book and win a huge ass war. Three things Dubya... is working on. Okay. Sucks at.
By contrast, the most scandal-ridden administration in the modern era, apart from Nixon's, was Ronald Reagan's, now widely remembered through a haze of delusional nostalgia as a paragon of virtue. A total of twenty-nine Reagan officials, including White House national security adviser Robert McFarlane and deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, were convicted on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra terrorist-appeasement program. An illegal lobbying and looting scandal inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development forced three Cabinet officers - HUD Sec. Samuel Pierce, AG Edwin Meese and Sec. Def. Caspar Weinberger - to flee their posts under clouds of charges.
In contrast, not a single official in the Clinton administration was even indicted over his or her White House duties, despite repeated high-profile investigations and a successful, highly partisan impeachment drive. Many aspects of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson are now viewed as a partisan witchhunt almost as baseless as that of Bill Clinton. Almost.
But. George W. Bush and his similarly incurious Republican sheeple in Congress are matched by an equally feckless and quisling press corps that behave like a claque suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Because the Bush Administration enjoys such a fiercely partisan and loyal majority in Congress and such an uninterested media (vain, addicted to trivialities, merrily content to stenograph for conservative propaganda), Bush does not face required oversight and therefore he is most likely safe for decades while his records are sealed.
Bush didn't get off scot free however, in Scooter Libby’s indictment, Bush still has the highest level official indicted while in office since the Grant Administration - not bad. But all of the Congressional scandals and Duke Cunningham / Abramoff / Ralph Reed scandals may be of his Republican party, but they're not of his particular Administration. For the shit to hit the fan on this Administration, it would take a Democratic Majority in Congress out for blood and a media culture that abandons the "he-said, she-said" style of reporting - and the utter abdication of responsibility that is it's byproduct.
It would take a civic and media climate where adjudication of fact and respect for the rule of law again become a virtue. In other words: not in America, not in my lifetime. When Bush's records are unsealed though, that'll be the day. It'll be a day 1 million years in the future. They'll be opened by a brave expedition of inter-galactic squid-headed space creatures from the Dagobah System who come to excavate the wasteland Planet #3's burned out ruins.
So Bush won't be remembered in his lifetime for his corruption scandals, but Bush surely deserves to be known now as the most despotic of Presidents. Those few times when Congress has passed legislation to limit his assertions of absolute power, Bush has resorted to issuing constitutionally dubious "signing statements," which declare, by fiat, how he will interpret and execute the law in question - even when that interpretation flagrantly violates the will of Congress. Ha! Earlier loathed presidents, including Jackson, freaked people out merely by offering their own view of the Constitution in order to justify vetoing congressional acts.
But dude, Bush doesn't bother with that! He signs the legislation (eliminating any risk that Congress will overturn a veto), and then goes on and governs however the hell he pleases - using the "signing statements" as if they were line-item vetoes, stating that he just sees the law differently. Serious. It's a brazen kick to the nuts of the founding fathers who crafted the Constitution in retaliation of identical behavior from King George. In those instances when Bush's violations of federal law have come to light, as over warrantless domestic spying, the White House has devised a novel solution in four steps : Stonewall investigations into the law breaking, put the leaker in jail, accuse the media of treason, and then ask a submissive gimp Congress to simply rewrite the law being broken so that the shits no longer illegal. Stunning. Orwellian. The Sith are a powerful party.
Back to the other contenders: Akin to George W. Bunnypants, President Warren Harding (1920-1923) is remembered for being wholly unqualified for the job. A amiable dolt, steered by corrupt conservative Republican puppeteers and party power-brokers, his administration collapsed under the Teapot Dome scandal where public land in Wyoming was given to shady oilmen connected to the Secretary of the Interior. Horrifically stupid, racist, and isolationist, Harding was a drunk and also a compulsive gambler. Harding literally gambled away the White House flatware while pissdrunk. Harding's Presidency is a model for a "failure," but again, lucky for him he died only a few years in to his one awful term after he ate some bad crab. Aw.
James Buchanan's (1857-1861) southern elitist partisanship, mixed with his effete God-complex helped further divide the country which was teetering on the edge of Civil War. His inaction also helped further enflame sectional violence. Ultimately he failed to avert the Civil War. His rudderless leadership ruined his party, and being such a weak foppish clown, he was prone to frequent bouts of depression which invariably affected his Presidenting. The single decision to not deal with succession might be the worst single decision ever made by a President.
Ah, but wait. In ten years we'll see clearly whose decision was worse; Buchanan's decision (to allow Civil War) or Bush's decision to invade Iraq... for no good reason and then proceed to remake the Middle East in the image of.... of a hornets nest, hit with a cat, swung by it's tail. (It'll take 10 years for the hornets and the cat do do their thing.)
But really folks, it comes down to this, in a time of great civil strife, President Buchanan did not have the guts to act - Bush Junior did.
When America was attacked by Osama bin Laden -- for Bush to stare in the face of that historical moment, with the entire world rallied in compassion, infused with a feeling of unprecedented, almost ethereal harmony with the grieving Americans - compatriots in the human race; that singular time of supreme clarity on the whole human condition, and the unfathomable interconnectivity of such a fragile species, on this delicate planet, all of us eager for positive reinvention and rededication to humanity, for Bush to look into the face of that, pause, and then rape it in the ear, kidney punch it, take a dump on its desk and then go and do the EXACT WRONG THING in order to destroy the world, takes guts... no it takes more than guts. It takes atom-splitting stupidity and a sheer, unrelenting hatred for all that is good and decent.
Bush wins. ¶ 10:34 PM 0 comments
