A Worry
Sometimes these unpleasant thoughts run through my head late at night. One recent concern relates to today’s anniversary, and what the Bush administration might do if Republicans lose the election. Overtly, they could do anything outrageous up to and including starting a war with Iran; considering what Bush Sr.–a relative saint compared to his son–did, sending our troops into Somalia after the election was lost, one can imagine that almost anything is possible. This administration has nearly decimated the Bill of Rights, introduced massive spying on our own people, introduced torture prisons worldwide, shown incredible disdain for the rule of law, and injected virulently partisan politics into every nook and cranny of government. They are capable of virtually anything.
If Obama wins, what will they do? We know that the whole “W”-keys-gone-missing from White House keyboards was fictional, but even that would have been the worst the Clinton bunch did, had they actually done it. But would the Dubyas do something far worse, like set Obama up for failure by intentionally fumbling the handover?
For example, the Clinton administration did an admirable job briefing the Bushies on national security; they highlighted al Qaeda and bin Laden as one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat to the U.S., and presented the Bush people with a fully-formed, highly-functional system for dealing with terror intelligence. The Bushies then completely disregarded that and dropped the ball, leading to 9/11. This is a failure of massive proportions (failure for the country, immense boon to the Bushies) which the Bush administration has felt the sting of over the years.
So if and when Obama wins, will they try to set Obama up for a new attack? Will they try to make themselves look more effective, or set Obama so he’ll lose influence and maybe re-election? Will they withhold vital information? Will they fail to brief his people fully and accurately on how to handle things?
Don’t tell me they wouldn’t possibly dare do that. They would. In a New York minute, if they thought they could get away with it, and they probably believe they could. All they’d have to do is lie about it later, and then attack any attempt to expose them as a partisan political ploy to escape responsibility and smear the opposition.
I just hope that if Obama does win, he keeps this threat in mind and depends on more than just the departing Bushies for support. There will still be untold numbers of Bush’s minions burrowed into the soil of the bureaucracy, ones that Obama won’t be able to dig out even if he attempts to sweep the rosters clear of badly-chosen political appointees.
I hope this is jut a worry, and I try to tell myself I am just being paranoid. But I think back to the fact that Oliver North was the man behind the mission to rescue the hostages in Iran–the ones that met with mechanical problems, crashed, and the mission failed. That mission was the do-or-die moment for the Carter administration, and its failure meant that Reagan became the next president. And one of its planners, Oliver North, turned out to be one of the most rabidly right-wing partisans in recent history.
These are vile, hateful thoughts, that such treason could be possible. But like I said, these are the kind of people we are dealing with.
There is a price for freedom that we will pay for freedom from Bush and the reactionary Republicans.
In his book “People of the Lie: The Hope for Curing Human Evil” Dr. M. Scott Peck, M.D., (More famous for “The Road Less Traveled”) said that the essence of evil involves some kind of element of control – usually over others.
This happens on almost every level. There’s Hitler’s desire to control Europe, and I learned, while working in the Family Law Clinic in Law School, there’s the wife beater’s desire to keep his wife under his control. Usually, the person trying to control other’s has little or no control of himself. Always, in the victims quest to break free from the controller, the controller will resort to doing almost anything to maintain control, and that’s where the controller becomes most evil, but also most baneful. In the case of Hitler and the Republicans, much of their original motivation is already tied to resentfulness, which is a segue to anger and hate – which means they are capable of anything. I think most of us are convinced, that Bush had ample warning before 9/11 and just allowed it to happen anyway. They already were filled with resentment over modern America from day one – that’s why ruinous policies came so easy to them.
It’s at that point that the controller will threatened the victim with a promise of extreme violence, and/or terror if the victim proceeds in their quest for freedom. Usually they carry through, but only partially effective. There’s a ferocity when they make the attempt but there’s a half-heartedness in the execution, and often it gets botched somehow. A guy starts out threatening his wife, then proceeds to greater and greater violence, but even he begins to sense the absurdity in it (and prehaps the inadequacy in it – its a last resort tactic). In the case of Hitler, he did not, nor couldn’t threaten the German population, they were already in a hell hole, and were doing everything they could to prop up his regime because they feared justice (at best) and reprisals (at worst) from the Russians (at least) – but in the end, he did order a scorched earth policy against the German people, but it was never carried out.
But you don’t have to work in a family law clinic to see this dynamic at work. A good analogy of it takes place in the movie “The Truman Show” starring Jim Carrey. In the movie, Jim Carrey’s life, unbeknown to him, is 24 hour T.V. show, that is controlled by an egocentric Television Producer/Director. At some point, Carrey makes a break for freedom. The producer subjects him to a storm at sea that nearly kills Carrey in his attempt to maintain control. In the end, he can’t kill him. He also takes a last stab through pleading and negotiation.
Often that’s how abusive relationships or dysfunctional relationships end. I’m sure they’ll plot something. I’m sure there’s people that are unapologetic about venting their resentment and revenge against the American people if and when the American people send them packing. But not everyone: some inside the administration will be repulsed, and some will be sane and some will at the very least see the banality of it and so it will lack full enthusiasm and backing. And so it’s likely that the effort will be botched. However, I suspect there’s a price this country would, and should have to pay for allowing these kinds of monster’s to come into power in the first place. And there is the side benefit that, the more baneful their attempt, the more discredited their movement. One can only hope. As Churchill promised in his “Finest Hour” speech, on the other side of the dark hour lies a brand new golden age – which proved true, 1945 – 1973 was the most golden of history’s golden ages.
And, we’ve already seen the threat coming from the Republicans. As Obermann made a special comment on it yesterday evening on his show, the showing of 9/11 at the Republican Convention was really a threat made to the entire U.S. – this is what happens to the country if you vote for a Democratic President. As Obermann pointed out, that showing of 9/11 was meant to scare Americans. It was an act of terrorism itself. In essence, the Republicans repeated the act that Bin Laden had done all over again to the United States. This is the first demonstration of their use of the terrorist bargaining method of trying to keep control of the country through terrorizing it. Already it looks ridiculously baneful. Already. Already McCain’s lying is looking the same. Already. Their full peacock lying could shrivel up by the time of the election, spelling the death or near death of their party – but you can bet that they will go down kicking and fighting all the way. At least some of them. The more Goebelesque amongst them.
We have no choice. Like Truman we have to brave it. You can’t be the land of the free if you aren’t the home of the brave.
While I certainly agree with your hunch that W is not a good sport and would deliberately conceal information from Obama — even at the price of putting the nation at risk — in order to try to bring about an embarrassing crises for Obama, still I’m not too worried about this. First, your concern on this score presupposes that W knows anything worth imparting to a successor — a pretty dubious proposition as W is proud to be a know-nothing. Second, Obama is a very smart guy, book smart and also strategically wise — in fact, he’s clever in just about every way. He also surrounds himself with smart people and listens to them. He and his team will hit the ground running and figure out everything necessary in no time flat. And I have no doubt that he will double-check with independent sources anything that W does condescend to tell him.