I don't know why political sanity is such a scarce commodity in the America of the early 21st century, especially given that these are such flush times. Which people on Earth, throughout the entirety of history, have known the abundance of wealth and physical security that has blessed the contemporary American tribe? And yet look at how close we've come to junking it all, following headlong over the cliff a buffoon with the instincts of Mussolini, the competence of Clouseau, and the compassion of Caligula.
It now feels to me as though we've probably survived this moment, among the diciest in American history - though the jury is surely still out, and that happy outcome is hardly assured. This administration has never lacked for boldness or cynicism, and has never stopped playing that same old tired tune - the American security blues. All of which adds up to at least a fifty-fifty chance of missile attacks on Iran, especially as the November elections approach. (If Iraq offers one silver-lining it is that a land invasion of Iran - an incalculably stupid mistake under the best of circumstances - is no longer possible, now that our Army has been broken in Baghdad.) But I'd say it's now an open question whether the public would fall for that ol' rally-'round-the-flag magic yet again, or would decide instead that there is an insane warmonger in the White House who must be removed from office at all costs, before he plunges us inescapably into a clash of civilizations with 1.3 billion furious Muslims. The same equation holds should there be another terrorist attack on the US. Would the public be enraged that the 'security president' failed yet again, or would fear cause them to rip up the Constitution altogether and anoint him Dear Leader for Life? Unfortunately, you'd have to bet on the latter.
Even if we and our democracy somehow manage to survive the next three years, this presidency has represented a brush with disaster far too close for comfort. And with Roberts, Alito and possibly other Bush clones joining Scalia and Thomas on the Supreme Court, this tragedy will surely be the gift that keeps on giving. One more appointment and there is a built-in, rock-solid, far-right majority on the Court dedicated to undoing the twentieth, and even the nineteenth and eighteenth, centuries.
Many contemporary Americans - frightened by change, economically and otherwise insecure, steeped in a false gospel promulgated by false prophets (not to mention profits) will welcome the facile but counterfeit assurances offered by such a theocratic autarchy.
But our founders were horrified by this prospect more than two centuries ago, and so am I today. Given the choice, I'll take competence over buffoonery. I prefer economic solidarity to plutocracy. I'll take democracy over oligarchy. I choose freedom over repression, and decency over torture.
Is that too much to ask?
* "Who Are These People?" - from the album At This Time, by Burt Bacharach.
It now feels to me as though we've probably survived this moment, among the diciest in American history - though the jury is surely still out, and that happy outcome is hardly assured. This administration has never lacked for boldness or cynicism, and has never stopped playing that same old tired tune - the American security blues. All of which adds up to at least a fifty-fifty chance of missile attacks on Iran, especially as the November elections approach. (If Iraq offers one silver-lining it is that a land invasion of Iran - an incalculably stupid mistake under the best of circumstances - is no longer possible, now that our Army has been broken in Baghdad.) But I'd say it's now an open question whether the public would fall for that ol' rally-'round-the-flag magic yet again, or would decide instead that there is an insane warmonger in the White House who must be removed from office at all costs, before he plunges us inescapably into a clash of civilizations with 1.3 billion furious Muslims. The same equation holds should there be another terrorist attack on the US. Would the public be enraged that the 'security president' failed yet again, or would fear cause them to rip up the Constitution altogether and anoint him Dear Leader for Life? Unfortunately, you'd have to bet on the latter.
Even if we and our democracy somehow manage to survive the next three years, this presidency has represented a brush with disaster far too close for comfort. And with Roberts, Alito and possibly other Bush clones joining Scalia and Thomas on the Supreme Court, this tragedy will surely be the gift that keeps on giving. One more appointment and there is a built-in, rock-solid, far-right majority on the Court dedicated to undoing the twentieth, and even the nineteenth and eighteenth, centuries.
Many contemporary Americans - frightened by change, economically and otherwise insecure, steeped in a false gospel promulgated by false prophets (not to mention profits) will welcome the facile but counterfeit assurances offered by such a theocratic autarchy.
Is that too much to ask?
* "Who Are These People?" - from the album At This Time, by Burt Bacharach.
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