Long Night's Journey into Obama

In January 2001, shortly after the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision which stayed the Florida recount and handed the 2000 presidential election to Barbara Bush's ne'er-do-well eldest son, I was sitting in my weekly group therapy session for high-functioning gay men. Which was high-functioning in purely relative terms, since one of the participants had been busted for crack while turning a trick.

Anyway, I hijacked the discussion for a half hour to complain at length about the election, the Supreme Court, and the forthcoming Bush administration, and, for good measure, San Francisco's public transportation grid. I had an aching suspicion that all the rhetoric about compassionate conservatism would unravel at the "compassionate" part. And the whole thing made me feel unwelcome in the country.

Fast forward to the present. Everyone I know has reacted in very personal ways to the miasmic stench (Latin root: stenchum cheneyium) of what we have all endured, as if we all lived in the Anbar province of Iraq. (Everyone except for one conservative bonehead in my hip-hop dance class plus a few Orthodox Jewish family members, who think Barack Obama is the second Shabtai Zvi [meaning false messiah, and the only thing I remember from Hebrew school, and which probably underestimates the number of false messiahs]).

Not to suggest that our suffering even comes close to approximating that of the Iraqis, but Americans have been fraying at the nerves for a long time. Here's a quiz: how many people do you know who have not taken the last eight years very, very personally? Almost as if they had been psychically extraordinarily rendered. My grandmother used to render shmaltz to great effect, and now because of George Bush's way of rendering, I no longer enjoy matzoh ball soup. It's that bad. This nightmare has gone on so long that the battery finally died in my backward-Bush-counter (a clock which for five years kept me updated, to the 100th of a second, about how long we had to go before January 20, 2009).

In situations like this, truth-and-reconciliation commissions can sustain a lot of healing. Under the threat of conviction if they fail to confess, the bad guys admit to what they have done. The public meditates on the crimes. A lot of former victims cry. Scholars write some books and hopefully get tenure. And then, after much deliberation, catharsis, argumentation and grief, society kind of moves on, at least a little bit, with a more sober sense of what has been allowed to pass in its name.

Sadly, we are unlikely to muster the political will to hold such a commission in the United States. Three obstacles, in particular, come to mind. (1) The Democrats are spineless toads; (2) A big chunk of the electorate, including the 46.2% of the public who voted for Bristol Palin, doesn't really care that much about what Bush has done; (3) It's not unimaginable to believe that on his way out the door, Bush will pardon everyone in the country including himself who had anything to do with his administration. With the possible exceptions of Paul O'Neil and Chuck Norris.

What we need is a national healing ceremony. My friend who has breast cancer came up with a ritual of her own. She's writing down all her fears, aspirations and regrets on little slips of paper and then burning them in a boobie-shaped ashtray. Since her ritual poses a fire hazard, I propose the following resolution instead:

Whereas we're about as likely to get a truth-and-reconciliation commission as we are to see Condi Rice succeed at something;

Whereas so many people need to heal from the Bush Years;

Whereas Bush's newfound avuncular reflections make me want to vomit on the life-sized inflatable Keith Olbermann who shares my bed (note to W: wisdom usually follows from trying to solve problems. So please ix-nay on the essons earned-lay):

Be it resolved that Arianna et.al. organize a little next-best event on HuffPo, which would involve readers writing in to nominate the most odious thing that the Bush administration has done.

The hideous accomplishment that gets the most votes could be spelled out in Texas barbecue sauce and showcased on the Colbert Report, maybe next to Bill O'Reilly's picture. At very least, this would allow us to share our kvetches with each other and get a sense of what gave thoughtful people ulcers during the past eight years.

If the HuffPo elders agree to this proposal, I'll start things off with my vote for the single most odious crime that the Bush administration has committed. The obvious winner is John Yoo's hack job on the Geneva Convention!

But wait, what about the extraordinary rendition of Khalid El-Masri et al? Or the 600,000 dead Iraqis, and the looting of the Iraq National Museum? No, no hold on. I forgot about Kenny Boy Lay. And Ohio voter suppression in 2004. Yikes, what about the Federal Marriage Amendment, and Karl Rove's face? And lying their asses off at every turn...

Hell, since this is my idea, I get to vote for them all. I might even need a few more votes. I wish I had a friend at the RNC.

Comments

[BarryS]

one can hope that the Bushies are indicted abroad ala Pinochet, however, they just will stay in Texas/Montana for ever.

[pjburke]

When the law remains silent, the precedent is set.

Iran-Contra excused by Bush 41(who clearly was up to his neck in it, else why would Junior have immediately sealed his father's records by executive order?)... and then Bush-Cheney pushed the edge of that precedent out to a whole new level of wanton criminality. The open question now becomes what will the next crop of Republican criminals -- or authoritarian by any other name -- take us into? What's left? How would _they_ ever be stopped? Germany was tiny compared to the U.S. today, and look what that collection of sick bastards perpetrated and what it took to stop them.

If we, as a nation, fail to investigate, indict, convict and punish war crimes just for the sake of deterrence alone, then we forfeit our claim of right to remain an independent, self-governing nation state.

[AntsyAmerican]

Another classic, Aaron. This one was touching and a little inspiring.

-your former APDA nodding acquaintance, "Bonnie from Amherst"

PS, my office could use one of those dolls of which you speak.

[ProudLiberalDan]

The corporations that buy and sell both major political parties don't want it so we will never see it, even though it would be great for our moral standing at home and abroad to have it.

[larry278]

I'm all for the TRC idea, after W & his crew are executed.

[oafishcad]

Hell no! I don't want "truth-and-reconciliation". I want arrest and incarceration! We've been run by war criminals for the last 8 years. They need to pay the price for their crimes. America does not torture, arrest with no charge and imprison with no conviction, as we have done. Those who destroyed, distorted, and ignored the Constitution must not be allowed by the spineless Democrats to literally get away with murder.. I am not willing to make nice with them until after they get out of prison.

[TRYKER]

I'm with you...we don't need no stinkin commissions.
We need to follow the law. Reconciliation is a tea party...for war criminals? I don't think so.

[ohmercy]

Great post.
And funny too- God we need more humor!!!
I'm with you but who CAN pick just one one!

a couple of years ago we were already saying how much more? everyday some new hideousness would emerge.
I feel psychically abused and I think that is what the nation as a whole is going through, no matter what came out it was basically either ignored or just glossed over- even by those who were outrgared and showed it - how could they do otherwise when the next dqy brought more.
We have no investigative journalism anymore, no one who takes a story and sticks with that story until its all uncovered--- well, there may be a few but agaibn, the 24 hour news cycle just pushes it off the radar.
The bombardment of just core rottenness we have been subjected to over theswe last years has left us exhausted and speaking for me, cynical and when I hear Barack's advisors (like Sunnstein for starters) saying we need to move on I just feel more abused in that weary way that those who have been chronically abused have- any small amount of hope I can muster is always tempered with the hopelessness that we will not be seeing any truth coming to light about the last 8 years. I don't even care about prosecutions anymore, just having them shamed in the eyes of the world will be enough.

[Telemachus]

I have already written in to www.change.gov , and I suggest everyone who reads this do the same. It is the one and only suggestion I've ever made to try and influence the incoming administration's agenda. My request was simply that an able prosecutor be furnished with enough resources to continue the investigation already begun in the civil case of King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (Case 2:06-cv-00745-ALM-TPK) and follow it wherever it leads.

This is the case about the cyber-rigging of the 2004 election results in Ohio, the case in which Mike Connell was subpoenaed to testify before his airplane "accidentally" crashed a couple of weeks ago.

I think just pulling this thread will unravel the tapestry of lies woven by the Current Occupant and his hatchet men, and once that is done the healing can begin.

Not before.

[Clavis]

Too many Republicans currently in office are Joe Scarborough types -- people who seemingly get off on the fighting, and who *always* put party before country.

George Washington warned about party loyalties, and the modern Republican Party is the emblem of his warnings. What's more un-American than stealing TRILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer money and handing it over to the richest 1%? What's more un-American than degrading our national educational system and quashing American science? What's more un-American than lying to the nation on a regular basis to keep it confused and uninformed so you can keep winning elections for your party while making sure that we as a nation are less equipped to handle the crises of the future?

The Republican Party: Because un-American is profitable!

[IGNSTHMD]

I was reading this blog and stopped on the most openminded paragraph I have seen in a while. It starts with: In situations like this, truth and reconsiliation.... I took the first two statments for granted, but became skeptical of the third: the public meditates.... I feel a more accurate depiction of public temperance looks more like... I want to feel good about my ability to stop corruption (via/because of my nationalist notions, current pop culture or personal fears of impotence) in my country. As I continued down the paragraph I assumed a somewhat defensive stance on the idea that we just "pick up and move on" as moving on requires some form of solution via acknowledgement and restitution (not supplied by patronization (this time around)) or acceptance of a collective nature. I loved the notions though.

[KayWrites]

The votes are already in. ABC's Nightline offered viewers a chance to vote for the biggest villain of 2008. They offered Blagojevich, Madoff, Spitzer, and others as choices. By an over 50% margin, viewers picked George W. Bush, even though he wasn't even on the list. I believe the reckoning with the people has begun.

[research]

Link?

[American In Chicago]

Another worry I have is this:

No matter how much institutional reform is brought by the Obama administration, if the men who perpetrated the crimes of the Bush administration are not forced to face justice, future Republican (or perhaps Democratic) machinations will be only more severe and brazen. Any gains made could be easily lost under another single rogue Presidency.

Iran/Contra was never fully investigated or prosecuted. This left the impression that law breaking could be done with impunity. A certain segment of the political class took this presumption and ran with it. If they continue to get away with it, they will only get worse.

I hope that President Obama understands that the most important function of law enforcement is deterrence.

[wesinohio]

My ex-wife, a flaming neocon, still thinks Ollie North is a national hero. Others measure all success in dollars. These shallow, destructive people just have to be marginalized by sentient thinkers.

[marignymitch]

You are right to worry.

Deterence of rogue regimes was neutered the moment Ford pardoned Nixon. Then came Iran-Contra. Then Bu$hCo. And until some of the toadies in Washington find the spine to call the criminals to account presidential law breaking will become ever more 'severe and brazen', as Junior has proved. Next?

Obama will not call the dogs to heel. (See FISA vote.) He and his fellow Democrats are earlobe deep in the mess and, as noted in this post, not particularly courageous.

So what's to stop the next round of extra-Constitutional misadventures? Nothing apparently. The enabling of executive lawlessness has become national policy. And Bu$hCo is correct, after all: If the president does it it isn't illegal.

[ohmercy]

yes, absolutely. People who win power seldom give up even a small amount. People with power mostly tend to push the envelope a bit.
These criminals pushed the envelope a lot, in fact they tore the envelope off decency and ripped it up.
Now I am not saying the Obama administration will take advantage of the new boundaries but you can bet someone at sometime will. If we don't rectify the abuses we are inviting more abuse.

Some people believe that the neocon conspiracy against the Clintons--- yes Virginia, there really was a vast rightwing conspiracy which Norquist's Wednesday group, (which was host to lots of people dedicated to spreading any and everything to bring Clinton down and included the Rush Limbaugh show, thus making him a "star" and hero of the wingnuts) dedicated to undermining Clinton and the PNAC group dedicated to the forign policy debacle we see now were participants in.

anyway, some people think the whole 8 years they spent undermining Bill's presidency and trying to destroy the Clintons was payback for the democratic led investigations into Repub illegalities and for Hillary being a participant in the Nixon Impeachment committee. Don't forget the operatives in the Nixon administration were- have been influential in the current administration. I for one do not doubt it in the least and I would guess the reluctance (spinelessness) in part fear of retribution.

[kitanonami]

John Yoo's gutting of the Geneva Convention is a good start on the list. My fear, however, is that, considering the secrecy shrouding the Bush Admin., reports of odious acts will continue to trickle out, through back channels for years, and the worst of them will never be investigated or proven.

[LeonBNJ]

Perhaps some reasons that we won't see a truth and reconciliation commission:
We have to pay attention to the more immediate issue, the economy. Many are going to be much more concerned about losing their jobs, homes, health care than going after issues of the past.
Many on both sided of the asile are fearful that they too will be brought out as part of the criminal beheaviors, from voting for going into Iraq, voting for Homeland Security bills that took away rights, allowing GWB more power.
There is no money for campaigns or campaign benfefits by being on or spending time on such a commmission, better to be on some committee that allocates the stimuli monies to your district or state.
Perhaps creating a dangerous precident where after every Presidential reign, there will be such commissions. Every President in the past could be considered to be eligable for such commissions from their proscution of wars, racist policies, and so on.

[American In Chicago]

Leon, I do not believe that there is any reason to assume that the Federal Government does not have the resources to to enact economic stimulus / economic reform and prosecute crimes. I believe both of these functions to be of equal importance. In fact, to some degree they must be wedded.

And I agree a Truth & Reconciliation Commission would set a dangerous precedent. Dangerous to law breaking and injustice. As well as dangerous to dishonest and unwise policies. Where laws have been broken let them be prosecuted. And let lawful policies that were ill-formed be exposed as such.

If this theoretical commission expands its purview back to Clinton's Iraq policy or Brezinski's Afghanistan policies that could only be healthy.

Consider that the past is prologue.

[Shaddup]

There have been over one hundred laws broken where we already have the proof. it's not like it takes an investigative committee to prove one.

[American In Chicago]

The absence of anything resembling a Truth & Reconciliation Commission will be evidence that we continue live under the power of the military coup that took JFK from us no matter which side of the duopoly holds the reigns.