America Used To Be Really Goddamn Awesome
I've been captivated by Ken Burns' The War this week and it struck me how awesome America used to be.
The prevailing attitude of the ladies and gentlemen featured in Burns' film, and by proxy all Americans of that era, was that if we had to fight a war, we had better do it right. Clearly and with little dissent, we had to fight that war, and without fail, Americans rallied together to do it really damn well.
People from every corner of the nation selflessly pooled their resources for the great cause of World War II, and I'm not sure about this one, but I don't think President Roosevelt ever once asked the country to sacrifice by going to the mall. And I'm pretty sure he didn't outsource the construction of tanks, Flying Fortresses, Hellcats and Thunderbolts to Mexico and China. That's a hell of a thing by today's standards, isn't it?
We've fallen so far from what we used to be, even as recently as thirty years ago when the comparatively liberal president Richard Nixon opened a dialogue with Red China, whilst Mao supplied arms to North Vietnam. One day long ago, it was okay to wish for an end to a war, without being accused of hating the soldiers who were fighting it. It was once a given that socialized public education, police, fire departments, roads, parks, national defense and the constitutionally mandated General Welfare & Domestic Tranquility were simply a part of the American way of life and would always be there.
And when our nation had to go to war, we would be there for her.
Conversely, when we crumble to the pressure of our reactionary and authoritarian elements, we get Japanese internment camps, the rise of the military industrial complex, and men turned away from service due to the color of their skin. Some of our greatest failures have been conceived when our irrationality, fear and lust for power overrule our traditional American ideals -- even during our finest hours as a nation.
And now, 50 years later, in our lives and times, we get President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
The Bush Years have been a monumental, cataclysmic failure on most fronts due to its inattention to what has, historically, made American great. The president and his thinning ranks of fawn-eyed Hannities don't understand this yet. They don't understand it mostly because they're too ignorant -- blinded by sloganeering -- to the very basic reality that Bush Republican style government, in practice, is about as successful and practical as a paper condom. It always has been.
Nowhere is this more apparent than when they compare the Bush Wars to World War II. It's a desperate notion, one that seeks to conflate our current president with greatness he doesn't deserve and an historical legacy he will never achieve. It's also meant to inflate our current "enemies" to Hitler status, and thus proving the case for war.
The comparison is pure horseshit. (Say nothing of the fact that it elevates Bin Laden or the late Saddam or the present Ahmadinejad to a level of villainy they also don't deserve. It's like saying a doofus villain like Solomon Grundy is the next Lex Luthor. I'm sure they appreciate being granted superpowers enough to take over the world, though.)
If it's so fucking important to stay in Iraq, and if it's so fucking important to invade Iran -- and if it's so fucking important to wiretap your phones and read your mail, and to shit all over your constitutional rights and the Geneva Conventions -- and all of it is part of a larger World War II style conflict, then why aren't the Bushies taking their metaphors seriously by demanding the sacrifices of World War II?
Did President Roosevelt cut taxes or ask veterans to pay higher deductibles? Did President Roosevelt outsource the army by hiring no-bid corporate mercenaries?
From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Japan, automobile manufacturers stopped making cars in lieu of manufacturing hardware for the war effort. Can you imagine, among all of the scrap metal drives -- the rationing of everything from gasoline to frying pan fat -- if Roosevelt had allowed SUV drivers to receive tax breaks in which sheer vehicular tonnage was rewarded at the peril of even one American G.I.?
If the quintessential symbol of the American character in World War II was Rosie The Riveter, the poster for the Bush Wars has to be that of an SUV driver receiving a tax break while sucking down enough Saudi oil to drive to a mall where he's expected to buy lead-tainted crapola manufactured overseas -- a yellow ribbon hypocrite magnet dangling just above his exhaust pipe and several inches from a fading W04 sticker. The caption: "The Bush Patriot Says: 'I'm On It, Mr. President!'"
The Bushies can't possibly take their own World War II metaphor seriously because they don't truly believe in the comparison.
They know, as you and I do, that these wars have little to do with stopping a new Hitler. If we peel back the layers -- if you look at what truly drives little childish men like Hannity and Cheney and Kristol, you'll find that it has little to do with liberating nations from an occupying Nazi force and ending a brutal holocaust. Beneath the pasty white surface of a typical Bush Republican you'll find greed, fear, ignorance, anger and a basic lack of understanding of America's place on the world stage. They're traits that drive nations into unnecessary wars. They're also traits that often breed cowardice.
To wit... Those of you demanding a war in Iran, I have one question for you. And no, I'm not going to employ the tired military service argument, but I must ask you this: what is the very minimum you're doing right now to prepare for your war? Are you refusing to support further tax cuts or pumping less "Islamofascist" oil into your SUV tank?
You're probably not doing anything because all you're expected to do is to say that you support the troops (what does that mean in practice?). And as long as you don't oppose the president as he dismantles the Constitution in favor of a corporate police state, then you've contributed to your president's war effort. That's the Bush Republican way. Oh, and to shop. You have go to Disneyland and buy shit you don't need at the mall (what the fuck is a Webkinz?).
How will the Ken Burns of the future portray the Bush Wars? I imagine that a large part of a future documentary about these times will detail what Rick Perlstein sublimely referred to this week as the destruction of America's character.
Whoever the future Ken Burns might be (hopefully, it'll be Ken Burns), he or she will have to dig deep into the destruction of our national character and detail the stories of torture and secret detention facilities; outsourced corporate thugs murdering foreign civilians; government scare tactics without substance -- it'll be a documentary in part about your non-military friends and family who supported this president's war but who sacrificed nothing in its execution.
So here we are in late 2007. The president believes that history will vindicate his efforts to destroy the American character and to bring about the ascendancy of neo-conservatism. After all, he fancies himself the new McKinley -- or is it George Washington? Is he Lincoln this week or Truman? Is he still fighting the Vietnam War or is it World War II? Korea or the Civil War? Goddamn him and his marble-mouthed horseshit. That's exactly why it has to be up to you and me to write the history -- the truth -- now. It won't be a proud endeavor because there has been little to be proud of, but we have to make sure that future Americans know exactly what happened in the Bush Years and in the Bush Wars.
The pendulum keeps swinging further to the right and seldom in our generation has it swung all the way back. When a president can look you in the eye and say he's going to veto healthcare for children, and his people are fine with that; and when the same sales pitch for Iraq is being employed for Iran -- and it's working, what else can you say about that fucking pendulum?
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Bob that simply hits it on the head. Great article. I really fear for our children, i dont know what they have waiting for them in the way of stable govt and services. The middle class is all but gone, the constitution has been hacked to pieces, etc.
Wake up America!! Everyone is asleep, at the mall or in their big SUV.
The corruption is so deeply entrenched, im afraid its just too late for the good ol USA.. Democracy, your rights and mine, is dying a painful death.
Time to find a new planet... :)
It's so difficult, to not feel we've gone past the Greedy NeoCon's killed the species.... like "Easter Island".....
Hi,
Very good ideas stated very well.
Thanks Bob, you have summed up our collective nightmare perfectly. Hopefully you will be among those who will write the history of what happened to this nation or the misunderestimated adventures of george the little and uncle dickie.
Since when has equating a country's greatness with its ability to wage war efficiently become a standard measure. The US of the World War II era had become "great" because it stole land from native Americans, imported slave labor from Africa, and stole a chunk of Mexico. If this is a measure of greatness it would be much better for the world to be made up of non-great countries.
Your guilt clouds your judgment. With that thinking where do you stop? Half the Roman empire was conquered slaves. Do you feel guilty the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal humanoids were basically out done by our more modern ancestors? Shall we go back to the primordial ooze?
Why cant you simply accept our human history, realize we have evolved into our present state and leave it at that? If we follow your silly guilt and liberal logic, we should give back the southwest US to the Mexicans, who should then give back Mexico to the Spanish who should give it back to the Aztecs who should give it back to some other bunch and so on and so on. Where does it end?
A country's greatness should be based on the ability to prevent a war. And dubya could have, but he didn't have the moral courage.
America is still awesome. Take a look around!
I have. It's shite!
Somewhere along the line, the majority of the U.S. voting public forgot that the true test of character -- whether it's that of a person, an organization, or a nation -- is not what values one claims to believe, but what choices one makes when the consequences involve significant personal risk or sacrifice. For all of their imperfections (e.g the racism of the majority of whites), the WWII generation did display a truly noble character when it came to risking their loved ones and sacrificing material comforts for the common good. By contrast, the current right wing philosophy that has dominated this country for the last decade and more gives lip service to ideals that it is never willing to inconvenience itself over. BY THEIR CHOICES it is clear that the Bush administration and their supportive right-wing pundits mainly value power, wealth, & their own ideology above all else. They will gladly sacrifice most of the constitution and many traditional American ethical standards for a greater sense of security, but they're outraged at the idea of paying higher taxes for it. They claim to support the troops by keeping them in harms way, but by and large they shun that risk for themselves and their loved ones.
Hypocrisy is to the right wing what water is to a fish. Our national character used to be made of better stuff.
Put this on the front page of every newspaper in America. would anyone actually wake up? Wouldn't it be nice.
But to counter the BS we get from the top, I've had a very meaningful education in this country from every AMERICAN (italian am, jap am, chinese am, african am, gay am and so on) I've learned to be not just tolerant of everyone but to think from others' point of view. Not like the criminals in DC.
America is great, but could be so much greater. We are victims of our own success. Now, we are either too busy or too lazy to understand the issues of the day. Commentators like George Will, William F. Buckley, Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky - they are lost to today's readers becuase their discourse is too civil and too intelligent. Now, no one pays attention unless you shout at your opponent, or write edgy articles, laden with derision and obscenities. And its this dumbing-down of America that gets "leaders" like Bush and Cheney elected. You think they are bad? Wait until this trend continues. THe worst is yet to come.
To reinforce my point - go to YouTube and watch the William F. Buckley - Noam Chomsky debates. My God - you can actually hear both sides intelligently articulated. Now, try to imagine a debate between Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken, etc. etc. Ugh.
Don't go after Franken or Olbermann--while I see your point, they're far brighter than you give them credit for. Franken, Harvard graduate, v. O'Reilly?
"the very basic reality that Bush Republican style government, in practice, is about as successful and practical as a paper condom" for the Win.
I have been reading posts on this site for two years now and i have to say that this is the best post I have read in all those years.
It's amazing that it took a documentary interviewing the "greatest generation" explaining what it was like to fight a real war that har real meaning. What real AMEARICANS had to sacrifice for a real cause.
The only real AMERICANS that are sacrifising are the men and women fighting along with the rest of the middle class, which is dissappearing. We are all sacrificing for the growth of the military industrial complex, and to create a new world order.
Ken Burns is a true patriot, Bob you are a patrriot. the miltary personel, especially the generals that left this cabal and are now trying to enlighten the masses of the truth behind the war are patriots.
It is a shame that the majority of those that protested the Vietnam war and the government that tried to shred the constitution back in the 60's, are now the sheep that are following this illegal government.
Thank you so much for writing this, Bob.
Don't forget though, that it will probably be the corporate media elite that will write that history.
Great post Bob. I believe that you are exactly correct in your assessment of the state of the country. We have also learned a few other things about ourselves during the last six plus years.
First, the idea that 'it can't happen here' has now been debunked. The fact that after six years of 'leadership' by this ridiculous little man still shows that 25 to 30 percent of Americans support him shows that it can happen here. If this president had been more intelligent, more charismatic and more competent, I truly believe that America would have happily followed him down the road to fascist authoritarianism.
Secondly, and even more unsettling, American has been shown to be even more shallow and hypocritical than I believed possible. We have been asked to sacrifice absolutely nothing in pursuit of victory in this so-called war.
I was listening to a NPR broadcast one Saturday where they were talking to a commander of the National Guard in Minnesotta, and they asked him if he thought Americans were being asked to sacrifice enough for this war. His reply was essentially that he didn't believe anybody was being asked to sacrifice anything and that this was by design. I believe that if Americans had to sacrifice like they did in WWII or even during Viet Nam where the draft was a possibility, or if the media were doing it's job and showing the horrors of the war nightly on the news, this war would have been over years ago.
Quote Steppenwolf, 'The people grew fat and got lazy, now they're vote is a meaningless joke'. Way to go America!
America is still awesome. Bush has destroyed the Republican Party, and the Iraq war has helped the peace movement by leaps and bounds. It's an all volunteer army, and Bush was given Congressional authorization for his war in Iraq. Come 2009, the Democrats will have the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress. If all this faux angst from the left helps that cause, so be it. I'll pretend to take it seriously, though it should be noted that the Bush years were marked by Democrats such as Gore and Kerry who rolled over to the right and let Bush do what he did.
Absolutely brilliant article! I'm a native Californian who moved to Canada two years ago because I'm ashamed at what the U.S.A. has become. As a keen student of U.S. history, I shared your thoughts EXACTLY while watching Ken Burns' magnificent "The War"...
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