7/9/07
Some time ago I decided not to write about politics anymore, because it just seemed to induce the usual responses from the contrarians among us, and indeed, a couple of my friends told me they actively disliked it when I began ranting. So I tried to remain sanguine as things became more and more outrageous, and each day I sublimated the urge to blast forth on this tiny piece of the internet I get to control.
I can't take it anymore. I'm just too fucking angry. Please, just leave me to my vitriol if you must, run away in droves until it's just me here, standing in a puddle hurling epithets at the weather, I won't blame you. But I need this place to vent, even if I'm repeating the self-evident, or behaving like an utter cliché.
George W. Bush should be sitting in a prayer circle, thanking his lucky goddamn stars for the following: cable TV, cheap DVDs, video games, air conditioning, and the over-scheduled lives of most Americans. If it weren't for these, the sentient population of the United States would have taken to the streets long ago demanding he be ridden out of town on a fucking rail.
Two things keep him in office: the creature comforts of being an American, and the amount of work hours necessary to keep those creature comforts going. Americans are simply too tired and too distracted to storm Washington, D.C., but in any other society, perhaps any other time in history, he would have suffered the same fate as Oliver Cromwell. As it is, all we can muster is historically-low approval ratings.
Even so, how do all of you deal with what this man has been doing? Giving Scooter Libby a pardon? Blocking all investigation into the Gonzales scandal? Claiming "executive privilege" whenever he damn well pleases? Continuing a pointless war where our countrymen are being slaughtered by the thousands? How do you fit that into your headspace when you hear it on the news? Am I the only one who quakes with rage?
Even his own Republican base is splitting from him, but believe me, they are no friend to any progressive American you know. They are splitting because he isn't conservative enough - they're mad Libby didn't get a full pardon, and they're furious Bush isn't even more cruel to illegal immigrants. These are the kinds of people who stand to inherit the mantle when Bush finally begins his mandated slide into Worst Ex-President Ever, which means our battle with these assholes has only begun.
The other night, we went to a fundraising dinner for The Center for Constitutional Rights, the group of lawyers who (among many things) are representing the men held illegally, for no reason, without trial at Guantanamo. The stories of who these prisoners really are, and what the Bush Administration has done to them, read like an Orwellian nightmare. The prevailing wisdom seems to be "they're all brown, let's kill them all and let God sort 'em out" and, sadly, you may well think I'm kidding.
Anyway, the CCR has a motto that says "we do things before it's safe." They filed a motion in February 2002 on behalf of Guantanamo prisoners who were held and tortured because they were turned in by fellow townsfolk for the ransom money. The CCR was the only group that dared to do it in those dark times, showed the bravery to do what was right, what was essentially American.
As they were giving the presentation at dinner, I sat in the corner and actually started to cry a little. September 11 had fucked me up so badly; in February 2002 I was barely able to tie my own shoes. During the next attack, whenever it may be, will I be able to act differently? Will I be able to summon the bravery that had so clearly left me in the PTSD aftershocks of that horrible winter?
The Bush Administration, in its seemingly unending commitment to cruelty and knuckle-dragging, did its best to keep PTSD reverberating throughout America for five years, and for that, I will hold a lifelong hatred for those horrible men, the same way my Uncle Chuck still curls his lip, his blue eyes dilated with disgust, when he talks about Nixon and Vietnam in the late '60s.
45% of Americans want Bush impeached. 55% of them want Cheney impeached. That's about the only good news one can muster, but it's fools gold - there is no way on god's green earth the Democrats can summon the nads necessary to rid us of these criminals. It's almost impossible to fathom: Clinton was impeached because he lied about a blow job; Bush is responsible for thousands dead and the shredding of the Constitution, and we're stuck living with him through the Modern Dark Ages. When Lucy asks us about this time - and she will - I will have no explanation.
Posted by Ian Williams at July 9, 2007 11:26 PMAs a veteran of Chicago and Miami '68 i have wondered why we aren't on the streets. My only explanation is that we don't have a draft and the university-aged people among us do not feel particularly threatened. (chalk that short-sightedness up to their youth). I thought then that Nixon was the greatest political villain of my lifetime. He was chump change in comparison to these people.
we'll be generations repairing the damage potus and the veep, i cannot bear to even type their names, have done to this country. I remain enough of an optimist to believe that we *can* repair it.
Yet we all seem content to watch the nightmare unfold on tv.On the upside they have engendered a new rule in my household: i will not discuss this administration in the dark. All conversations about this must take place in daylight. It keeps me from screeching "he's a fucking war criminal" in restaurants. (of course, this is new york so such an outburst merely engenders applause)
I enjoy the political rant days second most to Ian's posts about the Tar Heels. I suck at political knowledge but I enjoy reading the well-written, civil and objective opposing views from the regular posters like Matt, Zel M. and DFB's & T's. They usually bolster their opinions with facts and cites, unlike he-who-shall-not-be-named. So, if you guys are out there, how about sharing some healthy discourse from the opposing view of things. And, if you have the historial data to put things into perspective, please do so.
If not, take heed XTCIANers . . . only 11 days until the final Harry Potter book comes out.
Which is nice.
Ian -- All I can say is that you are not the only one who quakes with rage. I can barely read or listen to the news anymore, I'm equally likely to end up enraged or crying in frustration. In fact, I feel horrible about how little I follow the news these days. But lately it's just too much for me to take. Anyway, just wanted to let you know you are not alone. I drive past the White House everyday on my way to and from work with my daughter in the car. We also pass the Washington Monument. We have lots of discussions about what a monument is and what a president is, and I take advantage of these discussion to tell her that the man who lives in the big white house is bad bad bad!
Wonderful rant. We need you to yank us out of the vortex of work/buy/work/buy, Ian, and remind us just how bad things have gotten.
Perhaps I'm wrong on this, buy I don't believe Scooter Libby has been pardoned. He's been commuted.
It may seem like a foregoen conclusion that he will be pardoned, but that's not accurate at this time (according to what I have last read. has it changed?).
I do not want to see Bush impeached.. all we need for the next 15+ months is a long impeachment trial again. (that further distracts from the events that are important.) Then after impeachment he has to be removed from office. All it would be would be a political hack job trial like Clinton had to endure. In the end, even impeached, they could not remove Clinton from office.
Our next president has a lot of hard work to do. Our reputation in the world must be mended and the country itself needs to be brought back together. This is a colossal task that I do not think anyone can do. We will need to look forward and not backwards to achieve this.
Important times are here and ahead. We can't do anything about the now, but we can do something about the future. At least there is gridlock in Congress again. Who would have thought we would ever be thankful for that.
I repeat a comment I made several months ago that TV (dvds, games,etc) is the devil and to throw your TV set into the trash. I'm glad you are starting to see the light.
Also, although I am compleletly enraged at what has been going on, I have taken to keeping my mouth shut as I have not done a damn thing about this situation. Sure, I've written a few blog entries and countless comments, joined the ACLU and contributed money to Democrats but whooptyshit. Who cares? I haven't taken to the street, burned my proverbial bra, or thrown an egg at any of these liers in our government. Sooo, rather than being a raging hypocrit I hold my nose and hope that this administration will pass into history without committing any further giant mistakes. I'm not going to hold my breath.
Excellent post today. I remember ranting on your blog a few years ago about how "disappointed" I was in Clinton and how his impeachment over the Lewinsky affair and Gore's lack of "personality" made me, a registered Democrat, vote Republican.
Well, I did vote Republican back then . . . and now Bush has created a fiasco of such epic proportions that I CANNOT BELIEVE that I was so upset over an intern's bj. For crying out loud! Maybe it is a sign of how GOOD things really were with Clinton that the only thing I could get enraged over was a bj. Of course, that was all pre-9/11, when I had the luxury of being so judgmental. How ridiculous.
I honestly don't know how things would have been handled by a Democratic potus, but I do know this: we are living in a nightmare, and the majority of Americans seem too lazy to protest.
let's not forget the ILLEGAL part of "illegal immigrants"
it makes you wonder about the 27% who still support these clowns. my guess is that any day now bush will start talking about gay marriage again.
Kevin is right, the last thing needed now is a drawn out impeachment hearing. Everything's gone too far already, we just have to wait this thing out.
W's original legacy is playing out through the Supreme Court, as was always predicted. I suspect that if W could run again he would win. His original backers can only be delighted with the way things are going. The corporate community and moral majority are getting mostly everything they asked for - if not for this immigration business rubbing them the wrong way his approval would probably be over 50%, I don't think the war thing still gets at his base.While I personally don't like the situations, one way to keep things objective and lower your stress level Ian, is to remember two things:
Executive priveledge can be claimed up to and until is is contested and rebuked, any president can do it, and,
Pardons and commuted sentences are necessarily always done on guilty criminals, whoever is wronged is going to be pissed off.
It is too late in the game to push any of these issues and the White House knows it. They have always been crafty bastards; if only this had been an egocentric, brilliant, power-mad Progressive administration...
Only problem is, I don't think all of those words will ever fit together in the same sentence.
I started reading this blog (and have read it almost every day since) because of a beautiful, poetic rant, the day after W was actually elected to a second term, something that still makes me literally sick to my stomach whenever I think about it. I had almost given up faith in the people of this country and was in a tailspin of despair until a friend passed along the Coastopia posting and accompanying comments.
So please, please don't stop with the poltical rants. It's your blog and it's your place to rant. Maybe you could just post a warning for your friends that may be offended so they can skip that day's post.
Amen.
YES! GREAT POST AND COMMENTS! PLEASE write, and continue to write, about politics. because really now, the terrorists, neo-cons and d-girls win if you don't. (plus I'm getting quite bored with baby stuff, college basketball and gadgets. just being honest.)
you're not gonna turn into crazy uncle ian if you continue to do so.
YES! Tell it, brother!
Don't stop ranting! Ever! ...Please? Thanks.
The confluence of this rant, along with your accounts of buying an iPhone, and the dramatic contrast of moods between the two, remind me of something I've been saying for years:
There is only one thing that capitalism does well, and it does it extraordinarily well-- making cheap gadgets.
Capitalism is the best system the planet has ever known for the production and dissemination of cheap gadgets. 8gb of data on your freaking PHONE!?? Watching full-length, full-motion, full-colour movies on it? A global network connection from anywhere? Yay, capitalism.
However. Capitalism sucks at nearly everything else. I mean, you name it, capitalism handles it with anything between huge gaping flaws and a complete clusterfuck. But cheap gadgets? Flawless and perfect.
The problem is, if you have enough gadgets, and they're cheap enough, then who cares? Oooh, bright shiny objects!... who's on American Idol tonight?
I think the model for the future of America, indeed of the planet, is China. Though the American version might more resemble China's smaller, richer, distant cousin Singapore. Either way: a totalitarian state, inundated with enough cheap gadgets and trappings of material wealth that nobody cares.