Election Thoughts

To the Sunday New York Times editorial about the election, which addresses the question of why the Times is endorsing no Republican candidates, I can say, "I'll drink to that" and "amen". There are no reasons of any kind to vote for any Republican in any state in the union.

I sometimes wonder what history will deem to be Bush's greatest crime--the war in Iraq, the gutting of the Constitution, or the manipulation of scientific data to deny global warming for the benefit of cronies in the oil business. And, of course, these are only his proven crimes. Stealing elections, the unproven crime, comes to mind right now. Any of the proven crimes would warrant impeachment, and, some would say (I would say) imprisonment--and did you hear the one (reported in The Week magazine) about the Bush family buying 175,000 acres in Paraguay (which, accoridng to the magazine, has no extradition treaty with the US)? I also like the idea of reparations and maybe a little cherry-on-top extra punishment (my favorite would be all of the Bushes and Cheneys, including Laura and Lynn and the four daughters, mopping floors at a VA rehab hospital for Iraq war victims).

But perhaps the greatest crime is still in store for us. I am nostalgic for that time when we could be confident that, in most places, elections were honestly counted and I am nostalgic for that time when, if a certain party lost a seat in the House or the Senate, the transfer of power would be orderly and routine. I am not confident, should the Democrats win these mid-terms, that the Republicans will actually let them take their seats. Bush has given himself unique powers recently, including the power to declare martial law and to throw people into detention on his own say-so. He has gotten these laws passed in the teeth of falling popularity and deep anxiety in his own party. I have to wonder if he's deluded, or if he has a plan.

One thing I've noticed about Cheney over the years is that he can't keep his mouth shut. Perhaps that's the reason he keeps out of the public eye. When the public eye turns toward him, he reveals things. A few days ago, he revealed that in his view, waterboarding is fine. A few days after that, he revealed that the wishes of the voters in this country don't matter to him, and then just a day or so ago, he mentioned that he would not obey a subpoena to testify on his activities. What could be clearer than these remarks? Cheney does not feel himself bound by American laws. Would it be beyond Cheney to concoct a crisis before January, declare martial law, and refuse to honor the election, no matter how big the Democratic landslide? We shall see.

At the same time, what used to scare me--that Americans didn't seem to understand or perhaps care what the Bush administration was doing--no longer worries me as much. I have been deeply disappointed by the New York Times over the last few years, but Sunday's list of evils was sufficient even for me--I have nothing to add. Back on March 31, 2002, the Times published this letter from me:

To the Editor:

What's another name for the vast right-wing conspiracy that Paul Krugman writes about? It is ''coup d'état.''

Some of us liberals haven't been complacent at all over the last 25 years. Instead, we have done what we could (in addition to fuming and fearing) to alert others that the right wing is systematically destroying the political infrastructure and all sense of community in this country in the name of profits and power.

The election of 2000 was a naked power grab that allowed the right to put its programs in place as quickly as possible. David Brock's new book, ''Blinded by the Right,'' does not signal the end of this coup d'état, but is more like a bulletin from the frontlines. The American people would do well to heed it."

My letter seemed shocking at the time, and, of course we know that the American people did not heed the warning signs--the Times, didn't either. We have paid dearly for that mistake, but people are heeding the signs and portents now. Whatever crimes Cheney and Bush commit from here on out will be commmitted in the open, in front of a wide-awake citizenry. We may still have quite a fight before us, and as we engage in that fight I suspect we will find that many more crimes and horrors have been committed by the Republicans even than we know of now. We will have to deal with them somehow. Crimes, as we know, cause messes, and the tragedy is that at this point we have to deal with lots of enormous messes as well as lots of crimes. The prospect is daunting. But no matter what happens in the election, we are not going back to Cheney's world.