Liberals got revenge for Cheney's revenge, and all I got was this lousy political era
The Scooter Libby trial has me completely fed up with Washington.
Why anyone would think that a city and a political era so completely wallowing in its own bitterness and cynicism and vengefulness and meanspiritedness should be an example to anyone, nevertheless the world, is completely beyond me.
And its not just the blowhards in office. It's the press. It's the activists. It's everyone in Washington so fuckin' cocksure of themselves and their self-righteous grandstanding. It's all kinds of people whose real feelings about the world and others don't at all warrant that their examples be followed but who demand and coerce it anyway, deserving or not.
I am completely fed up. I have no heroes in Washington or among any of the important political players, right now. It's one long swaggering, tough-minded groupthink wandering between ideological causes. This is not King or Ghandi. This is politics masqerading as something better.
This is the crowd of folks who propped up slavery, insistent that fugitive slave laws were the law of the land, and the underground railroad was full of cowardly scofflaws ignoring the highest court's Dred Scott ruling.
This the crowd of folks who made the Nazis' extermination of the Jews possible by complying with the laws, because it was the law, after all, to turn in Jews to be sent to the ghettos and murdered.
And this is a political era of cowardice and vengefulness and bitterness and cynicism masquerading as something better than they are.
There are many things I can't stomach in the world. But pretending like you and your motives are better than they really are because you're too cowardly to face yourself for real is not courage, and it certainly isn't an example to emulate.
The Scooter Libby trial is about revenge for revenge. And it leaves me with the feeling that either progress entails an uglier, more bitter, more mean-spirited future.
Or, more likely. That this isn't progress at all. This is something uglier. This is politics.
"What have you accomplished?" Americans should be asking Washington, right now.
The answer: a solemn "Nothing."
Love,
Ben
4 comments:
Sure... I could go with that outlook on the Libby deal... Then again...
You've noted that one of the greatest problems of this current political era is the fact that leadership is never held accountable for its errors, pomposity and general foolishness.
Although the Libby & Bailey Circus was certainly a partisan-pushed affair, it was an example of holding someone accountable for the crazy shit that's been going on in D.C.
So, as much as I agree with your sentiments, it's also nice to see a jury of real-life Americans hold at least one person accountable for acting above the law.
I'm taking the good with the bad.
Carson
I guess, Carson, if none of us give a shit about the mess that we and polticians have created in Washington right now.
At some level, Carson, I just don't give a shit anymore. When the Iraq war went down and noone wanted to face the reality of how bad things had gotten, I still cared because I thought other people might too. But clearly noone really gives much of a shit about how bad Washington and petty partisanship and ideological grandstanding has gotten, so I don't either. I don't really give a shit, at all, what goes on in Washington, anymore, because clearly noone really does. Not enough to be honest about how we've handled things in the last 6 years or so has made things.
And, worst of all, not enough to admit that giving into all of our basest impulses has consequence, whether its in Washington or in life, whether we want to face that fact of life or not.
George Bush went to war in Iraq out of revenge for 9/11 and out of opportunity to oust Saddam Hussein. Patrick Fitzgerald and the press and media went after Lewis Libby out of revenge for that and for the ugly games that politicians decided to play, all rationalizing that that is just how the game is played, and the game is played that way because everyone just continues to rationalize it.
And the worst part, Carson, is that this and nothing of the "accountability" efforts by Democrats toward the President have done a damn bit of good, not that anyone will be taking responsibility for that fact anytime soon.
It's one long drama of defending the way you do things - whether you be conservative or whether you be liberal - and never be genuinely responsible for whether it does any good or not.
And that's what genuine accountability looks like, Carson. It's not imposed by someone else. Genuine accountability is when you take responsibility for yourself, when we take responsibility for ourselves.
But that does not look to happen anytime soon.
The worst part is that, very much like the Iraq War, it will continue to get worse and worse until we face up. So as long as we defend it, Carson, look forward to a perpetually more fucked-up, ugly Washington, D.C.
If that's the politics people want, then so be it.
But don't lie to me and the world and call it progress.
Ben
Carson,
I never at all meant to dismiss your argument or to say you, personally, were lying to me or the world.
What I'm fed up with is "progressives" ignoring the lack of progress derived from their efforts. Meaning, Lewis Libby's trial only provides accountability if they really believe what they did was wrong. I'm not clear that Valerie Plame was actually covert, and for all of the assertions to the contrary the only involved discussion I've ever heard about this fact that has serious bearing on whether or not they were trying to out a covert agent is from those who have made the pretty convincing case to me that she was not, in fact, covert, even as she was a CIA agent, and that the rest is about two liberal CIA agents being pissed off at the Administration about Iraq, not about official covert status. If I'm wrong about that and there was an intentional effort to out a covert agent, that is, of course, a very serious matter. But I presume innocence because it's the right thing to do. And while I am convinced that the Administration planned on using Plame's job with the CIA to buttress their argument that Joseph Wilson was not sent to Niger by the Administration, the stuff I've read seems to indicate that she was neither covert nor within the 5 year time period which would make any outing illegal.
I think this trial was about the Iraq war, Carson. If she was a covert agent and she was intentionally outed, that is a different matter. But I've not seen enough evidence to conclude that is true, yet, Carson, and there is far too much animostiy amongst parties to just take the word of the Administration's critics, at this point. If I'm wrong about that and Plame was intentionally outed, I don't think it does much good to prosecute Libby and I think he's the fall guy for the Administration and possibly VP Cheney, but I have less sympathy for him because that would be a dirty trick, indeed.
But the fact that Fitzgerald and the Judge would not allow evidence of the actuality of Plame's covert status is a pretty good tip-off to me that noone seemed to care if a covert agent was actually outed or not.
What people wanted was blood for Iraq.
And that hasn't and won't do a goddamn bit of good for anyone and anything.
And I'm doubting whether anyone will face up to that soon.
But they face up to it at some point, because, very much like the Iraq War, eventually the evidence becomes overwhelming.
Ben
They must face up to that reality, I meant to write, obviously. Though noone can force them to do so. They will have to stumble over their own little fuck-up on this one all on their own, just like the President and his little war.
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