A Plague Upon the White House

I am not a conventionally religious man, or even a very superstitious one, but I do wish George Bush would stop asking God to bless America. Every time he does, we seem to be visited with another plague, suggesting divine wrath over our president's evil ways. How else to explain the persistent calamity that has marked this administration: a pointless but very costly war over nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the devastating New Orleans flood, the betrayal of the nation by the money-changers -- from Enron to Goldman Sachs -- that Bush welcomed into the temple of the White House?

What's next? Pestilence, frogs, locusts or incurable boils? Dare we risk four more years of catastrophic misrule by a "W" alter ego? For those indifferent to the serious implications of that question, I recommend Oliver Stone's new bio-flick, which brilliantly captures the "banality of evil" that has controlled our political life these past eight years. This phrase from Hannah Arendt's characterization of the mundane cruelty that so marked the daily experience of European fascism has a frightening applicability to the Republican leadership that has done so much damage to this nation's reputation for democratic integrity.

Cynicism rules even as ritualistic prayer breaks, as depicted in the film "W," abound. The pretense of piety earns the president and his accomplices a get-out-of-jail-free card; at no point in the film do any in the top ranks of this administration -- captured so accurately and depressingly -- accept one iota of accountability for how much damage they have wrought. Unrepentant, the same Republican apparatchiks are employing the familiar Rovian tactic of divide and conquer in seeking to continue their hold on power. Once again, they seek to focus attention on hot-button social issues and patriotic litmus tests to draw attention from the fact that family values are being destroyed by the loss of job and home.

Perhaps John McCain is not a perfect replica of George W. Bush, but the parallels go beyond the senator's enthusiastic support for the toxic mix of Bush's imperial foreign policy and his arrogant indifference to the travails of our domestic existence. Neither man seems to have any sense of how we actually live or what we need from government. How else to explain their common antipathy to Social Security and Medicare, which, after public education, represent the nation's most successful programs? Can you imagine the panic today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in tying Social Security to investments in the stock market? They view government as nothing more than a proud sponsor of the military-industrial complex while ignoring the threat to homeland security from corporate pirates.

Don't say we weren't warned. Bush came into office believing fervently that what was good for Enron and its CEO, Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay, Bush's top financial sponsor, was good for the country. So, too, McCain, who chose Phil Gramm as co-chair of his presidential campaign, ignoring the huge loophole in Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act, which allowed Enron, where his wife, Wendy Gramm, was on the board of directors, to so shamelessly game the energy market.

Trumpeting the benefits of the legislation he tacked onto an omnibus spending bill the day before the 2000 Christmas recess, then-Sen. Gramm stated: "It protects financial institutions from over-regulation. It provides legal certainty for the $60 billion market in swaps." Those swaps created the toxic investments that U.S. taxpayers are now stuck with as the nation struggles to save those unregulated financial institutions from bankruptcy.

McCain, who should have learned the cost of radical deregulation from his own involvement in the savings and loan scandal as one of the infamous "Keating Five," totally bought Gramm's line. McCain was the chair of Gramm's 1996 presidential bid and up until major Wall Street firms collapsed continued to echo the insistence of the former-Texas-senator-turned-banker that there was no real crisis in the financial markets.

McCain evidences the underlying motivator attributed to Bush in Stone's movie: the distorted priorities of a son of privilege doing battle with the legacy of more gifted and responsible family ancestors. Both grew up as spoiled screw-ups repeatedly bailed out of trouble by their highly accomplished fathers, in McCain's case an admiral, and both assume, as a matter of legacy, that they have a right to rule. What they ignored in their legacy was a Christian's obligation to make the economic system that handsomely rewarded their kin at least minimally responsive to the needs of ordinary folk.

Robert Scheer is the editor in chief of Truthdig and author of a new book, "The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America."

Comments

[kfdan]

" Unrepentant, the same Republican apparatchiks are employing the familiar Rovian tactic of divide and conquer in seeking to continue their hold on power. ... to draw attention from the fact that family values are being destroyed by the loss of job and home."

The Bush crowd are not just unrepentant, they are attempting to help put into office a person who is a hothead, self-serving, arrogant out-of-touch war monger! With McCain's famous rage syndrome ~ do you really believe he's someone you want near the 'N' button ~ not me!

[wendynyc]

We need spending in our country - on roads, highways, mass transit, healthcare reform, education, science and research - all the domestic programs that the republicans have systematically cut under the mantra of too much "spending" -

Meanwhile they have not controlled their own spending - their favorites being defense and pork barrel projects like the $750 million requested by Sarah Palin for Alaska last year -

and tax cuts for the very rich - another form of spending - while we the middle class carry the load!

[insanityfollows]

Excellent blog, and right on. You bring out a very good point that most of us almost missed. If Social Security had been tied to the markets we would have anarchy in the streets. Thank God that initiative failed. But, you are right, this man has brought utter ruin to the American people, and you are also right, not one person involved in Bush's administration has one iota of guilt or accountability. Some of us knew this from the beginning, but our points fell on deaf ears and we were dismissed as Chicken Littles and our points were dismissed as us disliking W, that was all. Those of us who had grave concerns have continued to stick with our guns, and sadly, we were vindicated. I hate that that is the case. My most ardent hope is that Obama gets elected. He will have an awful mess to clean up, but at least we won't have 4 more years of disaster to then recover from. I absolutely loathe everyone tied to this administration for truly jeopardizing one of the greatest republics ever on the planet. If anything good comes out of this, and if we are able to recover, hopefully we will regain the sense as a nation of the civic responsibility we have to our country to preserve her constitution. We have an obligation to stay actively involved in government, and that takes reading, and knowling the news. We'll see.

[HurryUp1212009]

WOW!
YOU JUST HIT THE BALL OUT OF THE PARK, AND I AM GLAD SOMEBODY HAS LET THE GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE BY COMPARING THE REPUBLICANISM OF TODAY WITH THE FACISM OF EUROPE PRE-WWII.
ALSO, I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED, DOWN DEEP, IF THE BUSH CABAL IS REALLY T-H-A-T EVIL AND SOCIOPATHIC. AFTER 12 YEARS OF BUSH PRESIDENCIES, WITH VIRTUALLY NO REGARD FOR PEOPLE AND NO MORAL COMPASS WHATSOEVER, I THINK THE ANSWER IS YES, THEY ARE....
I USED TO LOOK AT #41 AND THINK HE WAS THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE; THEN HIS EVIL SON CAME ALONG. A PSYCHIC SAID SHE WATCHED #43 ON TELEVISION AND SAW THE DEVIL INSTEAD....
BTW: UNTIL OBAMA IS ACTUALLY GIVEN THE OATH OF OFFICE, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT BUSH/CHENEY WON'T ATTACK IRAN TO TRIGGER WWIII, AND IN DOING SO, DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND SUSPENSION OF THE CONSTITUTION, SO THEY CAN REMAIN IN POWER, BACKED BY THE BROWN SHIRT BLACKWATER HITMEN...

[telebob59]

Beautifully stated, Mr Scheer. Your biblical theme is consistently used to good effect. Despite this, I'm just waiting for some frustrated 20 percenter (29 was the vogue a mere matter of weeks ago - I can't say it's statistically accurate) to say "gotcha" here on HuffPo by suggesting Obama is imlpicitly being portrayed in this piece as the Christ who would drive out the moneychangers from the temple of our government and THEN ranting on about Messianic qualities being attributed to Obama by the media and his supporters. Personally, I'll take a genuinely Christlike Christian over Paris Hilton any day of the week. Yes, "W" is just a film, but where else are we going to get such an almost exacting portrayal of the psychopathology that motivates our Executive? Certainly not from the "fair and/or balanced" media. That last paragraph just about says it all.

[texanna]

I totally agree with the last point you made regarding McSame and Shrub as spoiled, rich boys. In fact, it was the first thing that sprang to my mind last night while Wrinkly was carrying on about how he knows what it's like to grow up needing support from others because his father was away at sea so much of the time. I don't think it was an accident that he failed to mention that his father was an Admiral, because everyone knows that an Admiral's family has no idea how the common family lives! Talk about privelege and being kowtowed to...

[Republicrats]

It depends, was his father an Admiral for his entire youth or did he work his way up the ranks while young John grew up? Getting an appointment to a mil academy is not reserved for the priviledged class, hard work, studies, and smarts usually do it.

[jotunloki]

Read his book. His father was already an admiral, and his grandfather had also been an admiral.

[texanna]

Being a legacy certainly doesn't hurt and since his grandfather was an Admiral, his father moved up the ranks pretty quickly. While his father wasn't always an Admiral, he was definitely a Senior Officer while John was growing up such that he really has no clue about what middle class life is like.

[Republicrats]

So how will Obama stand up to the entenched mil/ind complex. the lobbyists, the susidisers, the aiders, the bureaucrats, the... list goes on...If the senate goes to 60 dems, and the house goes further dem, how will spending ever get reined in?

[schatsie]

Kevin Phillips book was fabulous..the only thing bad about it was he did not tell us when to sell out and take our profits...This mess has been on the back burner since 2002 and the Federal Reserve stocked the fire...

God forbid we should have recognized that the only jobs being created under Bush were at Black water and Walmart. God forbid the bankers should have respected their fiduciary responsibility..

That is it, these People are guiltry of Criminal Malfeasance due to the EXPICIT abrogation of their FIDUCIARY RESPONISIBILITY.... Yes I had the opportunity to collect 2 million, did I take it, no I was young and naive,,,Now that I am older and facing retirement, I would not hesitate to take it...(well maybe I would hesitate)... So I am saying that Temptation and GREED are the issues, we need to put the income taxes back up to 90% and audit the expenses...The idea that AIG had the HUBRIS to spend 500,000 including travel expenses after the bailout is just INSANE...

[Glenn1441]

Oh, spot on, Mr. Scheer!

I am surprised by several of the 'mediocre' reviews of Stone's film. What I took away from it was exactly what, I believe, the director intended: W is a spoiled, reckless, untalented n'er-do-well with a chip on his shoulder.

In that sense, I am astonished by the parallels between Bush and McCain, which more than anything make the case for 'more of the same' should McCain assume the role of president. And McCain's blatant display of Obama during both debates clearly illustrates his fear of genuine talent, and regret for his own youth, and so many missed opportunities for excellence.

[Wilbur]

Don't be surprised by "mediocre" reviews of this particular Oliver Stone film. Ever since Stone produced "JFK," the biased conservative media has made a pariah out of him, because he got closer to the truth than anyone else had to date about the one event that, moreso than any other (including 9/11), forever changed the USA and the world. It's important to the MSM and the corporatistas they protect to diss Stone whenever and wherever they can.

FYI, Stone will be one of the guests on Bill Maher's "Real Time" show on HBO this FRiday.

Wilbur

[MatoSka]

Let's try to avoid making this election a new parable for the Scriptures and stay focused. President Obama will cut the budget, like Clinton did. He will need to get real money from somewhere for the bailout that he voted for. We have not yet been told where it is coming from.
Let's not just rush in panic the way Congress did in passing the bailout. They yelled FIRE in the theatre and brought in a picture of a cup of water in to put it out.
If Obama thinks Warren Buffet would make a good Treasury Secretary why not just pick Kenneth Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, and hand over the title of the US to him.
I know that Mr. Scheer heard what Obama said about Afghanistan and Iran. Let's not ignore the obvious implications for the future.

[jamesdaddio]

Well I just heard the press secretary for P Bush say that she hasn't been without a job and that there is not a plan to extend unemployment, basically find a job is what she was saying how do people feel about that, and I think Jon M will do the same your on your own out there. I have been in business for 25 years as a freelance photographer and my clients can't afford to give me work how can someone find work cold.

[AbrahamSadegh]

This may sound strange and horrifying, but gradually I am beginning to be more concerned about the McCain/Palin combination ending up in the White House and the great probability of an unelected Sarah Palin ascending to presidency than the (im-) possibility of the present "plague" ridden Administration continuing for four more years.

Present Administration is going down in the history as the worst and yet as grammatically incorrect as it would be, a McCain/Palin Administration might be the most worst and perhaps the last Administration if the manage to start WWIII.

[Republicrats]

Palin/Jindal in '12, two DC outsiders would be a great ticket! Shake up the DC establishment!

[Eoin45]

Yeah, that's all we need is president and vice president who don't believe in evolution. As far as I'm concerned I don't want any more know nothings in office. If they believe what they do then neither one is intelligent enough to be on a city council.

[johnqeniac]

palin? you're kidding. Nader or Paul would be worthy challengers to the entrenched corporate lobbyists and special interests, but palin is both ignorant and nefarious. she is a climber, and without scruples.

[dannyo152]

Well, the question the pundits will wrestle with is did Palin prevent a blow-out or doom the ticket.

But, it history does not augur well for the one who loses as the party's VP nominee. 1960: Lodge, 1964: Miller, 1968: Muskie, 1972: Shriver, 1976: Dole (Exception, he led the ticket 20 years later), 1980: Mondale (Nominated in 1984), 1984: Ferraro, 1988: Bentsen, 1992: Quayle, 1996: Kemp, 2000: Lieberman, 2004: Edwards

They give the job to someone who will bring geographic balance, who is comfortable saying they believe what the top of the ticket believes (think George, pere's, chokeback of his voodoo economics quote) and who is there to attack the other party's nominee while keeping the skirts of the party's nominee clean.

Maybe Palin can maintain a national constituency. I'd be worried that the diversion of a national race means she is a one-term governor and with the exception of George Bush, pere, parties don't like candidates who lose in the lower leagues.

[tcagle]

Let my people go, Republicans.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Honorary Huffpick.
God help us.

[GrainOSand]

"What they ignored in their legacy was a Christian's obligation to make the economic system that handsomely rewarded their kin at least minimally responsive to the needs of ordinary folk."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

As for guilty by association McCain should be quiet -- the first link below is about McCain money and organized crime and the second is about the same thing but with an interesting twist. It was written by Jerome Corsi back in February of this year. I just read a story about Corsi yesterday on HP (third link) so I found the coincidence a humorous sign that the stars are aligning perfectly. Seems Corsi was not always enamored with McCain.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/5/113331/0255
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=57354
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/07/jerome-corsi-obama-smear_n_132522.html

[silverball]

excellent post and highly accurate in the blue blood background of these two...if it weren't for their fathers status (and actual involvment in the bailouts) we wouldn't even know their names because they couldn't have done it without them....king george's history of business ineptitude should have been warning enough about his competence to govern......kevin phillips' books are an excellent expose of the bush family....and it's NOT about any family values we should aspire to....

[lejman]

funny, i just wrote the same thing in response to the blog citing palin's outrageous statement that john sidney mccain III is an underdog.