So there he stood last night, pleading for a reduced sentence by history.
"There are things I would do differently if given the chance," said the outgoing president amid his 13 minutes of pursued mitigation. "Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right."
What irony. Because that, in so many other words, is what his erstwhile archnemesis, Saddam Hussein, declared repeatedly and, finally, with succinct poignancy just before they sprang the trap door. It is truly the last, most desperate, and by far the most overused plea from unrepentant scoundrels.
And here, in George Bush's own words and without so much as a dram of reassessment or reflection reconsidered, is what did him in -- not to mention thousands of innocents: "I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise."
Yet regarding the latter that's never been the case and never will be the case. Unfriendly and competing nations routinely cast the other as "evil," especially for domestic consumption, and then compromise with the other's existence till the cows come home.
The alternative is perpetual, global war; an alternative that has lain the necessary foundation for diplomacy since heads have been crowned, societies organized and armies mobilized.
How George W. Bush managed to miss this essential truth is beyond comprehension. That he indeed missed it is of course explained by his ideological intoxication, but that still fails to explain how such a spectacularly manifest truth and the fundamental lessons of history so steadfastly escaped his bubbled little world.
Nevertheless they did. Somehow -- and this is more a matter, I suppose, for psychiatry and the child development field than politics and international relations -- Mr. Bush managed, in his mind, to trump certain universal realties with mere, ideological wishfulness.
With, that is, fantasy -- the very kind of fantastical delusions that mark doctrinal religious fervor. For ideology is the church, the temple, the mosque of politics gone mad; a mental construct designed purely for the purpose of shutting out reality and embracing a self-contained mantra, no matter the cost to God-given Reason.
Oh my, what an intolerably lengthy introduction to the principal point I wished to make. Let's just say George Bush got the better of me. My preliminary remarks as derived from last night's spectacle were only intended as a bookend: Bush is now the past, but what of his GOP's future?
If David Frum's thoughts are any indication -- and, I submit, they are; Frum is a powerful and influential voice of the GOP's increasingly populated libertarian wing -- then I further submit we're about to see more of the same.
Frum, as you'll recall, is a former Bush II speechwriter, prolific author and member of what the right considers its intellectual elite. He both molds and reflects current thinking of the reactionary sort, and it's for those reasons I like to keep in touch, readingwise.
What lesson has Frum learned from Bush's tenure? By way of an answer, here are selections from what he wrote, recently, in The Week:
Republicans can plainly see that in the name of "fiscal stimulus" Barack Obama is planning to do a lot of things that will in no way help alleviate the downturn....
Obama seems cleverly determined to adopt a less polarizing style than his two immediate predecessors....
At the same time, Obama’s views and instincts seem further left of center than Bill Clinton's, especially on economic matters....
We still don’t know whether Barack Obama sincerely shares [liberals'] nostalgia for the unionized, regulated economy fastened upon the United States by the New Deal. My guess is no. But if I am wrong, then Republicans will have no choice but to resist. Sometimes you have to risk being rolled over rather than play dead.
You can, and you should, read Frum's article in its entirety for yourself. But when you do, you know what you'll find missing? Any factual analysis of our present condition as well as factual analysis of how best to pull out of it.
What you will find, instead, is more of the quoted-above: political platitudes, a written detachment from reality, a fundamental negligence of street-level analysis.
What you will find is loads of ideology -- right on the heels of a near national obsession with ideological rejection.
What you will find, in short, is determined irrelevance.
For political partisans who so eagerly dwell on the traditional past, they sure don't learn much from it.
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Lies and Deceit
Look at the real record
History
Just leave...!
Pathetic... Deluded, paranoid... An insult to the Office... An expensive remedial lesson teaching both the substance and the importance of leadership... Nixon's true heir. These were just some of my visceral reactions to the two President Bushes on display this week during his Last Press Conference and his Last Talk.
Just as Americans, and the Senate, begin to grapple with The Obama Transition, which as Prologue to Act I in the Change We Can Believe In is being carefully watched for telling signals by tea leaf readers such as Frum and indeed everyone responsible for a family checkbook, we are now subjected to the wailings and ravings of the departing Chief, in one setting combative and in another reflective but obviously insincere and wholly self serving in both. Even his attempts at honoring what appear to be truly courageous Americans caught up in the maelstroms of his own creations came off as too syrupy, too contrived and finally very thin as cover for the crimes of the last eight years. To parade the victims of his own incompetence and lack of substance as his heroic legacy was a cynical insult to American dignity and the real grit possessed and demonstrated everyday by the people he has so poorly served.
In the end he left us by saying "don't worry, you're Americans and I know you'll get through it...", as if it was a passing tornado or snowstorm wrought by the hand of God and not the inevitable result of his own policy, prevarication and weakness. It is essential to the continued health of the American body politic and the future of our Liberty that we examine, investigate and hold accountable the individuals who have transgressed our Basic Law. While policy differences should never be criminalized, the use of illegal methods to achieve policy goals is another matter, and to ignore this is to provide licence to future abusers.
In the end I feel the rehabilitation of Richard Nixon, as a man to be honored, respected and listened to, was a grave mistake. It diminished the real lesson of Watergate, which was, at its core, about curbing the abuse of power by the Executive. When viewed in context with the Church Committee and the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, it provides a road map back to grace. To aptly borrow from the 12 Steppers, we are in denial and the first step back is to end that denial by using the tools of Republic to heal itself, moving through the Steps...
Or these guys will be back and having gotten cleanly away with shredding the Constitution, waging an illegal war and emptying the Treasury into the hands of cronies there will be no vestige of our Republic left to save it...
Hearings and trials, it's all we have, cumbersome though the process maybe it is the only way back to a patriotism not forced, for to come to terms with the past is the only way to cleanse us of its sins and allow us to shed its burden and move forward.
RGJ/Dallas112263
The Past Is Prologue
Those who live in the past, like Republicans, doom the rest of us to repeat it.
I sincerely wonder if change is even possible for them. They fear too many things to honestly experience them, and it is much easier to hide under Mama's skirts than it is to bravely face a new world. This may be why the Old Testament and tribalism (in the form of autocratic rule) appeal to them so strongly. Everything is written out for them, and there are no surprises. Anything that isn't covered would thus have to be ungodly.
But unfortunately for them, the world has been all about change since overcrowding bumped some of us out of the trees. We will have to drag them kicking and screaming into the future, where they will then attempt to take the credit for "leading" us to the future without letting us go too fast and too far that we forget our "traditional values".