It’s not so much that, due to the presence of more candidates on a stage than clowns in a VW Beetle at the circus, this whole exercise seems as important as the first elimination round of a reality show. Rather, it’s that the parade of sound bites and posturing is, well, a parade of sound bites and posturing. Oh, I know, these debates are supposed to show us the stuff these tough politicos are made of. We’re supposed to really get to know them. But are we really learning anything new?
Taking Aim: The Republican Party
The litany of objections to the Bush Administration and the direction taken by the Republican Party is long. Most of Bush’s supporters have very capably immunized themselves to discussions of them, so bringing them up in a conversation tends to fall on deaf ears. Consider the Valerie Plame affair. A covert CIA agent gets her cover blown, and, mysteriously, no one is held responsible for it. Scooter Libby, the only one to be charged with anything, gets convicted of lying and obstructing justice, and already Republicans are asking Bush to pardon him! Icing on the cake: “It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life,” Libby is quoted as saying. That’s right, let’s just let him off lightly on account that he was such a good little boy the rest of his life. But he’s not being judged for his life – he’s being judged for his role in the outing of a CIA agent. By that reasoning, we should let Dennis Rader (the “BTK killer”) off lightly because he was also a cub scout leader and went to church for 30 years.
Then again, the GOP under Bush has become the party of no responsibility. No responsibility for Sept. 11 intelligence failures. No responsibility for the disastrous Iraq war. No responsibility for the huge deficit and debt. No responsibility for destroying a CIA agent’s career. No responsibility for mismanaging the Department of Justice – a travesty seemingly linked to attempts to suppress non-Republican votes. No responsibility for lying about how the country went to war in Iraq. (Romney apparently still harbors the illusion that Hussein kicked the weapons inspectors out, when, in fact ,it was President Bush.)
More Bush Than Bush
The biggest revelation: the GOP acts as if freedom was not an American interest. Freedom for people to marry whomever they love? Nope. Freedom for women to make their own decisions concerning their bodies? Nope. Freedom of religion? Pffft! Freedom to fair trials and attorney representation, i.e. the rule of law? Maybe, if you’re a citizen and the President hasn’t declared you an “enemy combatant.” Freedom from big government? Nope. Big, intrusive, nosy government is just dandy — unless you’re a big corporation (bonus points for “defense” contractors), in which case you can have all the freedom you want.
And responsibility for Iran? Oh, let’s not get started. I humbly suggest reading this instead: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/05/1688/
Conclusion: John Dean was on to something in his discussion of authoritarian personalities in his book, Conservatives Without Conscience.
So when it comes to the debates, with the exception of Ron Paul (who won’t get anywhere because he actually makes sense), we’re faced with the bizarre situation that the candidates’ beef isn’t with Bush’s neoconservative ideology, but with his seeming incompetence in implementing that ideology.
Coming up: You don’t think I’m going to let Democrats off the hook, do you? They get theirs in part 2 of this little rant.
