I haven't blogged much lately. It's not that the Bush Regime hasn't provided yet another round of jaw dropping illegalities and mind numbing inanities warranting vigilant scrutiny, swift condemnation and trenchant critique. We're watching, for instance, the slo-mo extension of this stupid war, and a decorated general is about to go down in history as a public patsy to that endless end. Makes you want to cringe in both embarrassment and sorrow. You would think that Petraeus would have a sense of honor, or duty, or an inkling of shame that might well up in him and prevent him, at the last moment, from spinning us into springtime. Surely he knows (deep down?) that he doesn't have a credible plan for much of anything in Iraq, so his "report" serves the purpose only of suckering the American public yet again--and young men and women will die as a result of his polished presentation. Doesn't he realize that the bloodied demons and eternal furies of repressed conscience will eventually keep him from sleeping at night? They do catch up. They scream out, after dark, into your soul.
Anyway, there's been plenty to blog about. It's just that, lately, brooding despair has seemed to me to be the more appropriate emotional response than prickly indignation. One throws up one's hands, and sighs. I know better, but I can't help it.
Frankly, I'm mightily worried about the health of American democracy, that is, our 220-year old experiment in constitutional republicanism. I fear for our future--and not because of a terrorist triumph.
How far we have fallen from the Founders' vision. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Melancton Smith and other constitutional framers thought that the American political system they devised would naturally attract into office those leaders who were "natural aristocrats," namely, the best and brightest among us. Today the term sounds elitist and anti-democratic, but they didn't see it quite that way. Natural aristocrats were to be distinguished from Old World aristocrats, those bluebloods who claimed privileges on the basis of birthright and family wealth. Natural aristocrats, in contrast, were those individuals who distinguished themselves by dint of hard work, education, and enterprise. We might call them meritocrats, persons who earn their successes, as opposed to inheriting them.
Jefferson and Smith were confident that a democratic electorate, with sufficiently diffused education, would naturally vote into office such "superior" representatives, because talent, intelligence, virtue, and industry would surely win out over the "artificial" advantages of wealth and birth. Respect for "science, talent, and courage" is on the upswing, wrote Jefferson, whereas wealth, rank, and birth have "fallen into contempt." Our constitutional democratic representative republic would become the envy of the world if we, thought Jefferson, can attract and elect such well qualified leaders into office: "May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?"
Woe to us now. Is it just I, or have we indeed been electing into federal office, in the last decade or so, an unusually high number of goons, dimwits, thugs, flim-flam men, con artists, panderers, philanderers, perverts, prevaricators, prostitutes, bozos, B-actors, crazies, wackos, racists, scoundrels, criminals, and outright traitors? The Duke Cunninghams, Tom DeLays, and Larry Craigs don't seem to be simply the isolated exceptions and bad apples--they're just the ones who got caught. How is it that Dick Cheney can out a C.I.A. agent and not be run out of town as a traitor to this country? How is it that nutso Mike Huckabee can refer to staying indefinitely in Iraq as a matter of "honor?" How is it that a delusional frat boy with a fake Texas accent can dictate the terms of war for five years running? Why, in the Lord's name, won't the too-clever-by-half Democrats stand up to the hideous and senseless war mongering? Has the entire system of governance become corrupted beyond repair?
I find myself hoping that a professional comedian gets elected in Minnesota in order to provide some modicum of truth-telling and honest leadership in the highest public offices in the land. The Founders, however, probably wouldn't find that situation very funny.
My problem with Bush started well before 9-11. Does anybody remember the SPY-PLANE in China saga?
Bush demanded that the Chinesse returne the crew and plane in 72hrs, I beieve. This was before all the facts were in.
He later backtracked in his second public speech in which he mentioned he was sending 2 destroyers to China. I sat on the edge of my seat giggling a little(not the one you have when something is funny).
Who is this guy again and where did they find him? I ask myself. Do we for the first time have a dumb person for president? A president that probably does not know that China could arm an amy the population of the U.S?
My question is, What made him utter those stupid words, and did he really believe he could scare the Chinesse into returning the plane and its crew with 2 measly detroyers?
What ever the answer, he sure did manage to scare me a little because I knew if "shit hits the fan" I was among those who was to go "defend the country" for a cause that is just in Bushes eyes.
The incompetence and cover-ups is, can't even describe it. I am not surprised people still support Bush. They tend to be or claim to be religious.
It turns out ROVE is an ATHEIST and only paid lip service to these power/attention hungry so called ministers.
I wonder how many people have heard about this and if they feel duped.
Allow me to paint you a pretty portrait. What if, more people got up out of bed one day, decided it was time to explore that amazing organ that we are all (for the most part), blessed with - (the brain people, the brain), and started focusing their powers of thought on just the stuff that was going on around them...just that stuff that was happening now.
We don't want to complicate things for anyone...they can examine history after they realize the horrors of now. And what if, once they begin to realize what's going on, they start researching a bit more - you know, just out of curiosity because they haven't quite got to the part about "knowing what is happening is truly just in your best interest"...survival of the fittest is a lesson for another place, and time.
Then, once they start researching - oh look, other people think the same way I do.
Hey, what if everyone just got out of bed one morning and decided that enough was enough and left all their jobs, grouped their friends and family together and marched on the White House...?
What would happen then, I wonder?
Street protests have run their course and are wholly ineffective. Elections are mocked when rules of the game are changed mid-stream as is now being attempted in California. Still no matter the debacle in Iraq and elsewhere, until there is an economic collapse in the United States Americans will never awaken to see how the American Dream has been usurped nor awaken to the realization that we have been as Bill Maher has noted swindled. When public policy serves only one-tenth of one percent what future do the rest of us have? And when 90% is largely indifferent to do the "hard work" of actually voicing dissent what future do we all have?
Living in San Francisco is illuminating. Every Friday night, a group of 20 women protest outside the Bart station at Montgomery and Market. Twenty voices in a city of 750,000. And a city is that is more political and progressive than most. That is American dissent in 2007. Henry David Thoreau must be turning in his grave.
I am sick of old white guys trying to rule
the world.
I am really,really sick of them.
'Outrage fatigue' and 'moral exhaustion' sum up perfectly how thinking, moral people feel--I can only acknowledge that we are very young relatively in our 200+ year history.
Out of Congress
pick one
For one thing if all those who are now complaining had been paying attention all along - the republican majority would have been stopped a few years ago. So don't go blaming all of it on someone else. In order for democracy to work we must all be watching - all of the time.
I am perhaps amoung the most guilty on this.
I've been against the Iraq War from the beginning but I know once mistakes have been made you can't just unmake them. Even if we pull the majority of our troops out of Iraq, I hope you guys know we're still going to have a presense there for a long time.
You can't just turn back the clock on history. I hope this is a lesson learned!
Saw a post on Kos a while back that said it was "morally exhausting" to live in the US. Amen to that.
How is it that the sitting VP of this country gets deferred compensation from a company that was awarded no-bid contracts from the bush league administration and NO ONE is bringing his considerable ass up on conspiracy, influence peddling, conflict of interest or just plain old racketeering???????
Will someone please explain this to me???
===
That's what fuels my own sense of despair.
I expect the guys in the black hats to act their part. Bushco will be Bushco. And outrage comes easy, and often in response.
But when the guys in the (supposed) white hats turn out to be spineless, amoral traitors and scoundrels...that's what provokes despair in this old head.
If you are successful in dissuading kids from joining them, bless your heart!