A Chapter We’ll Wish We Never Wrote
What will our generation look like to our descendants looking back on their nation’s history? In the late 90’s – not too long ago – we had a great deal of our politicians up in arms about a President’s indiscretion with an intern, and our (Republican) Congress spent over 50 million dollars to try to impeach him for it. Fast-forward less than a decade, and we have a President who has blatantly thumbed his nose at institutions vital to our nation, such as our right to privacy, the rule of law, our treatment of prisoners of war, the impartiality of national media, and the system of checks and balances that serves to maintain our government. After all of that, much of it done overtly and without even a drop of pretense trying to hide it, we have leaders in Congress that have not seen fit to go through with the impeachment process despite the articles of impeachment being presented to them by one of their colleagues.
Fast-forward again, this time about 200 years, and we’ll have a society looking back and wondering why we were so ready to impeach a President for an instance of marital infidelity, while less than ten years later we stood by and watched the very next President plow through our most basic freedoms as a nation without bringing the same kind of action against him as we did against Clinton.
They say that every day you live your life, you’re writing a chapter in your life’s story. That holds true for our nation, as well, though on a much longer time scale. We wrote a chapter in the 90’s that told all who will look back upon it that we would definitely not stand for a President who shamed the office through personal indiscretions (by doing something a good many other Presidents also did – to include JFK). And the very next chapter we wrote was one of angry inaction as a President repeatedly debased our very institution of democracy by systematically trying to strongarm the Congress, politicize the Justice Department, stack the Supreme Court with political cronies, and expand the power of the executive office far past the bounds set forth in the Constitution - and in all those efforts he succeeded. I, for one, am ashamed to have been a participant in this chapter of our nation’s history.
I worry – quite justifiably, I believe – that this period in our nation’s history will be seen in the future as one of the most prominent stains ever on our nation’s record of support for the rule of law and the government’s faith to the people that entrusted it to honestly and fairly execute its duties. Only time will tell, I guess, but there is one thing that is certain. The events that have transpired in the last eight years will remain a part of our history, regardless of what steps we take to both solve the problem and ensure such things never happen again. As the old saying goes, you can’t un-ring a bell. I just hope that the sounds of the hideous bells our government rang over the past eight years won’t drown out the good we must do in the very near future in order to right the ship.
Nice to see you back here posting and on Pharyngula. Wishing you the best for whatever you want at this time of year. I am ready for this year to end, but optimistic for the future for the first time in years.
Ciao
Comment by JeffreyD — December 22, 2008 @ 8:35 am
Indeed, JeffreyD - I share your optimism, and I also share in your excitement over the fact that this is the first time in a while I’ve been able to feel that way. I just hope that this administration measures up to the standards it has set for itself.
Comment by brokensoldier — December 24, 2008 @ 12:29 am
I know it’s tough to be optimistic after such a horrible 8 years, but not everything will make us look bad.
The thing is that some of us weren’t entirely inactive; it’s just that the media didn’t cover it all the time. Or if they did, the coverage wasn’t always fair to those who tried to stand up to the administration. How much coverage did the Inauguration protesters get? How much of the anti-war protest coverage addressed the legitimate arguments of their stand? How many of them even showed a single speech? The MSM just showed the big crowds, and the occasional weirdo on display (the point of the latter being, of course, that “all” protesters were just a bunch of freaks).
When we weren’t being ridiculed or scorned, we were marginalized almost into silence, and we had to take our opportunities where we could get them. We did.
I think some of the blogs may (or could) survive as testament to how some of us refused to lie down and die. The story may be that the blogs became the new underground resistance. Thanks to the internet, people who might have done nothing in the past suddenly could be informed, organize and fundraise instantly, all over the world, 24/7/365. The Republicans might have had their permanent majority…
if it weren’t for those pesky bloggers.
In 2004, it looked like liberals were down for the count. But it’s like that old saying, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then–”
Well we haven’t “won,” but the momentum of the battle has definitely shifted a bit away from the conservatives. I don’t know if we’ll maintain it. I guess it’s up to us to make it happen.
Comment by Aquaria — December 25, 2008 @ 1:04 am