George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin have a natural affinity.
Both figure they can get away with murder.
In Putin’s case this is literally true. The Trotsky-style executions of Putin’s political foes are (for now) cheered by the Soviet (excuse me, Russian) people, because the economy is coming back on a sea of oil. The Soviet Commissars lacked a viable business model, but Putin’s has been tried-out in Saudi Arabia so no worries, Tovarisch.
Bush, too, believes he has gotten away with it. The "commutation" of Scooter Libby’s sentence puts an end to the four-year Valarie Plame investigation. Dick Cheney’s giant "f-u" to the Congress is also going forward — it’s considered too late to impeach him. Even the planned War On Iran seems to be going forward, right on schedule.
But are they getting away with it? I don’t think so.
Popular attitudes are hardening, not just against Bush and Cheney specifically but against Republicans generally. Richard Nixon went down, and Republicans went down hard in 1974 and 1976. But their philosophy was not discredited. Their ideas came back.
That’s not true today. Democrats will be able to dine-out on the Bush-Cheney legacy for even longer than Republicans dined-out on Jimmy Carter and George McGovern. We’re talking Hooverville here, folks — and that’s assuming the economy stays upright another year-and-a-half.
I got a taste of this simmering resentment yesterday.
I went to pick up my daughter at the Atlanta Airport and at the top
of the escalator was a scene right out of Soviet nightmares. Some folks
representing the USO were making everyone who was waiting for their
loved ones applaud each time a soldier or sailor came upstairs, home on
leave. (The picture at left, from the U.S. military, was taken in happier times.)
I support the troops, too, but what I most want to give them is, not
the trinkets and directions of the USO, but the assurance they won’t
have to go back. I suspect most folks there (even the soldiers) felt the same way, yet
many clapped anyway, and smiled, afraid that to object would be unpatriotic.
But not everyone. Many of us, perhaps the majority of us, stood in
stony silence, pretending to look past these heroes, down the
escalator, toward those who had brought us there. Anger over the policy
has gotten just that strong.
No one is getting away with anything. Not really.
Let’s start with this basic premise. Even a dictatorship relies on its people. Without
popular support, willing support, countries under dictatorship wither
away, naturally. This was true for Fascism under Mussolini, it was true
for the Soviet Communists, it’s even true for the Iranian Mullahs (if
we stop propping them up by feeding their paranoia).
It’s especially true in this century. The best people can always
move. The doctors, the lawyers, the scientists, the engineers — they
were out of Iraq ages ago. They all jumped the East German wall, and
they’ll jump the Mexican wall too unless we deal with Mexico.
If Americans continue to be denied democracy in 2008, millions will
start to flee. If the next election is stolen, as the selection in 2000 was stolen, there will be no more acceptance, no more
chances for this system. We’ll vote with our feet. We’ll be outta here.
And if we leave, America dies. If we even despair, America dies. People can move. Money can move. It will be just like my own fiction, only better-written. We’re not going to take this lying down any more. Either we get this country back or we’re out of here.
When and if we do get this country back, the Republican Party is
dead. Not just Bush, but the whole party — lock, stock and barrel.
Only a complete repudiation of everything George W. Bush and Richard B.
Cheney ever stood for will retrieve the legitimacy of American power.
And it will take several election cycles before the Republican Party
gets the message. We may even need a new opposition party, as Canada
did after the 1993, as Great Britain almost did after 1997. It’s more
likely that reform will occur in the political wilderness, but we’re
talking about the political death of ideas, not just personalities, or
labels. Bushism, Reaganism, and Nixonism are dead
Meanwhile there will be enormous pressure on the government to go
after these people, their families, and their money. There will be
enormous pressure to seize their castles, tax away their wealth, and
throw them all in jail, locking the door behind them. Maybe in the
Netherlands, maybe just here. You better damn well close Gitmo, Dick FU
Cheney, because that’s going to be your next address. No library for
you. Prison cell, slammed shut.
That’s the way Americans feel right now. This is what I felt at the Airport yesterday. You can sense it in the
streets, here hear it under our breath. We want to tear you and your
friends to shreds.
No one is getting away with anything.
