Bush the Younger was a shitty president right from the start. We will never know if a Gore Administration could’ve prevented the 11 September attacks (though presumably they wouldn’t have been nearly as focused on porn and drugs), but we know for sure that Bush the Younger was the worst possible of man for the aftermath. He crassly exploited the tragedy for political purposes by stigmatizing his opponents as cowards and traitors. He abandoned centuries long traditions of honor and law by condoning torture. And, a mere eighteen months after the real terrorists struck, he invaded a country that had nothing to with the attack.
In the year and a half from that horrible September day to the lunatic hubris of “shock and awe” Bush the Younger did more damage (in every sense of the word) to the United States of America than Osama bin Laden could’ve hoped to do if he lived to be a hundred and fifty. That it took the majority of the American citizenry years to catch on is a tribute to the good and the bad in us all. In the good column is implacable American loyalty and the genuine desire to do what is right and just. In the bad column is naivete and the stubborn belief in happy fiction over unpleasant reality.
There is, of course, also plenty of blame due to our craven news media and to specific fiends within the government, but ultimate responsibility rests with the President. Bush the Younger, whether he knows it or not, has neither scruples nor honor and such men are dangerous even in normal times; in a traumatized country that wanted nothing more than a leader in which to believe . . . well, the results are all around us. There is no need to grind one’s teeth listing them again.
That his deception lasted through 2 November 2004 was a true surprise to me, for while I am a cynic in the truest sense of the word I am also an optimist. Even in the dark days after that horrible election my faith that a great majority of Americans would eventually see his shit for what it really was never wavered. A few weeks later I was talking politics with my father and I said something which I’ve been repeating ever since. He was despairing over the state of things and, trying to cheer him up, I said, “This country is not insane.”
What was happening then was easily mistaken for insanity, but it was then, is now, and always has been, deception. Take our newfound enthusiasm for torturing people. Its utter ineffectiveness was carefully concealed, its stomach churning realities systematically hidden, and its terrible human toll obscured and ridiculed. That the deception was successful should come as no surprise. It was perpetrated with savvy marketing acumen by people in the highest levels of government. Torture propaganda was so successful that 24 must now be debunked in class at West Point. If America was populated by people as crazy as the 2004 results suggested we never would’ve defeated England, much less created a tremendously successful 232 year old society. This country is not insane but it was deceived.
Now we are coming to the other side of it, and hell hath no fury like an electorate scorned. Bush the Younger’s approval ratings have never been lower; he’s barely been seen in public in weeks and Reds of all walks of life, pundits, former cabinet members, politicians and spouses, are yelling over each other with shouted endorsements of Barack Obama. Dick Cheney is, notably, not among them.
This election could very well turn the country Blue for a long time for the simple and utterly rational reason that Red government and Red policies have been spectacular failures. Supply side economics wrecked the economy and preventative war discredited itself in its very first application. What will be interesting to see, and tremendously important to the future of the country, is how the Reds react to what should be their utter defeat on Tuesday. They followed the piper off the cliff, but at the moment they seem to be blaming the cliff. It’s John McCain’s fault for running a lousy campaign, it’s Sarah Palin’s fault for not knowing anything, it’s the media’s fault for not reporting fairly. You notice who they’re not blaming? Bush the Younger, his governing philosophy (to the extent he has one) and the dishonest political climate necessary for his election.
Barack Obama would be our first black President, but in terms of recent political history the greater fact is that he is not of the Vietnam generation. He was too young for Woodstock and Tet, too young to get caught up in Watts or Watergate. That may seem a trifling distinction but recall that it was only four years ago that the Democratic nominee was sunk by false accusations of Vietnam era disloyalty. The Baby Boomers will fight each other all the way to the nursing home over that terrible war but the majority of the country is now too young to remember it. The domination of the nation’s politics by the clashes of that time, bound up with issues of civil rights and feminism, is at an end. It only survived this long because Bush the Younger shoehorned the 11 September attacks into the same tired framework.
That Obama is having his victory celebration in the same Grant Park where the Blues destroyed their last governing coalition forty years ago is a none too subtle signal that that time is indeed over. Of course the man himself is a potent symbol as well. A black man with a Muslim name who came from the fringe of American society has now worked his way to its very pinnacle. His story is the one I was told growing up, that in America anyone can become anything. His election on Tuesday will serve as renewed proof that it is true, a bright shining reminder that even in our darker times our principals will prevail and pull us through.
Barack Obama is a candidate brought to us from the very heart of the American Dream, a brilliant contrast to the indifferent depravity of Bush the Younger. The strangeness of his name and the darkness of his skin serve only to illuminate the ideals he represents. This is truly America at its best.
President Barack Hussein Obama, in four or eight years that phrase will mean something very different than it does today. But for now it means that failure does not go unpunished, that dishonesty has its limits and that America is her better self again.
