"Many Are the Crimes," Then and Now

Like horses, lame ducks are also dead ones, so I really should dispense with comment on the two-hour show of obsolete vapidity last night. But the useless little runt is like a sore neck. I simply couldn't resist testing it.

My attention, however, was sparse. When pointlessness is interrupted almost 70 times by even more pointless and raucous applause, I find myself cursing the Founders for constitutionally requiring the silly thing. If only all presidents since Tom Jefferson had followed his lead and simply submitted the vomiting pabulum in writing, we'd be a better Republic for it. But we have Woodrow to thank for reversing that intelligent trend, the show-off.

Given my less than rapt attention, I'm always forced to rely on press reports the next morning to gauge what I happily, mostly missed. And on this particular morning, I'm even happier than usual. I missed nothing, according to the paper of record.

A subheadline on its front page tipped off -- or, rather, screamed -- the dreadful nothingness within. "The question of President Bush’s relevance coursed through an address that avoided reflection on his legacy," it said. Implicit in that line was that Bush somehow broke with his tradition of public reflection, which of course never was. For seven excruciating years we've suffered a one-way lecture, never a dialogue.

"The King Doesn't Carry Money" is how New Yorker cartoonist Charles Barsotti titled one of his works; neither does he consort with the little people. He simply issues edicts from on high. And last night in response to two terms of this undemocratic falderal, the people's representatives cheered.

Best I can tell, Bush's latest monologue was at least filled with juicy double entendres, especially when he opened by noting that "our country has been tested in ways none of us could imagine" since the malignant little authoritarian stole office. Finally, on that we're with him 100 percent, and we have yet another year of testing to go. It'll be like the neck thing: Is he still there?

Other portions were so disconnected from any recognizable reality, they nearly defy rational comment -- as when he declared "We have faced hard decisions about peace and war, rising competition in the world economy, and the health and welfare of our citizens." Then came the real insult: "These issues call for vigorous debate, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve answered that call. Yet history will record that amid our differences, we acted with purpose."

One strains to recall any checked-and-balanced decision-making committed by any outside the Oval Office. For two terms the national "debate" has been a one-way street and more than a trifle one-sided. That, gentle reader, is what history will record.

As for any "purpose" other than the unconstitutional concentration of executive power, have we as a nation seriously addressed fundamental questions of war or peace? (roughly half the citizenry was eager to assault yet another unprovoking nation just a few months ago) or risen to meet the challenges of "rising competition in the world economy"? or in any way advanced the cause of our citizens' health and welfare?

Nope, not at all. We've remained deadheaded in the water and mostly locked in an orgy of fear, at you-know-who's beckoning. Other than drowning ourselves in more inescapable debt to serve a dying global empire, there's been no movement whatsoever on real matters of real concern to real people. Oh, and the world hates our guts.

Bush's reign puts me in mind of historian Ellen Schrecker's postscriptual assessment of the McCarthy Era (in Many are the Crimes). After detailing all its disgraceful misdeeds and malefactions -- how we got sucked into them, how we suffered through them, and how we slowly crawled out of them -- her final and most incisive judgment is that, simply, the era was a tragic and irretrievable waste of national emotions and political resources.

We could have used our energies in devotion, say, to folks' health care, or children's hunger, or people's ignorance. But we shoved that all aside, allowing ourselves instead to fritter away years in mindless, pointless hysteria and follow the inanities of dangerous demagogues and power-hungry dunces.

Such was, and possibly remains, the state of our union.

****

to P.M. Carpenter's Commentary -- because your support is needed. I am not, as some readers have assumed, of the professorial class who lives off the fat of the ivory tower, though I do hold a doctorate in American political history. Rather, I am but a typically impoverished public scribe who relies on a substitute-teaching income as a too-meager base for this daily column. I therefore must also rely on you, the regular reader, to supplement the production of what you regularly enjoy -- or become enraged at. The purpose is merely to stimulate thought. So, if at all possible, please click above today. And enjoy. Thank you -- P.M.

Comments

[via]

"These issues call for vigorous debate, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve answered that call."

Yeah, like just a few hours before this monologue, when you and Cheney tried to once again to flog your minions in the Senate into stopping debate on FISA?

Delusional, lying bastard. Impeach.

[robertsgt40]

Just curious. Was there a flashing red light somewhere saying "applause" or was this pavlov in action??

[rxxgary]

i cant understand why there cant be one senator that stands up and fillubusts the insanity by simply asking how does this conform to the us constitution, then proceed to read the articles of the constitution over and over, maybe it will begin to sink in to the other conspirators in bush and cheneys crimes against we the people of the united states and the rest of their victims too

[NCBlueneck]

It's going to take a long, long time to remove the stain and stench from this Offal Office. Let us resolve today to put no more Bushes in office -- ever again!

[Clemsy]

I tried to watch the speech. I really did, but my attention just kept wandering and I'm like, "Wow. This is what feels like to be ADD."

I gave up and let my kid put on Cartoon Network.

I mean, after 7 gawdawful years, my brain is trained to equate Bush's voice so intimately with B*llsh*t, that listening to it makes as much sense as watching paint dry.

And what's with the applauding? No one, left or right, mentions his name anymore!

Unless "He's Gone" by the Grateful Dead keeps running through thier heads...

[Bobby Decker]

JEB 20?? ITS NOT WHO VOTES THAT COUNT ITS WHO COUNTS THE VOTES!

[Nina]

Since 2000 when this criminal and his cohorts stole the election, I have not been able to look at or hear him speak. The only time I turned the channel back to see if it was over last evening; who do I see up on her feet and applauding but Nancy Pelosi. That alone made me ill. I quickly turned the channed to the Food Network which was a hell of a lot more interesting to me at this point. At least I learned something useful...Impeach! Impeach!

[chanceny]

Le's see.. I gagged first, upon seeing the smirker up close. Then, I eye-rolled in disbelief and utter contempt. Then came the slow simmering anger, erupting further with each ovation accorded to this lying nitwit. Why were any dems applauding? Cause he invoked our troops? Cause this would be his last grand speechifying dealie? Cause our mutant media would have taken them to task for being disrespectful of 'the office'? Don't know and don't freakin care. At least I was playing the drinking game(shooting shots with each blatant lie he hurled), and, by the time those 53 minutes o'crapola wrapped up, I staggered away, seemingly smiling, awash in my 100 proof relief.

[senatorial cowards]

"i cant understand why there can't be one senator that stands up"

Simple answer. Well known to the Gestapo. The first one to step out of the line gets shot on the spot. It will take a senatorial stampede to to overwhelm the guards. Don't count on the bought/paid senators representing themselves to risk it all just for you.

[Quirks]

Forget impeach.
Drag them both, by their cajones, to The Haig for their trials. Then execute.
Very simple.