Being a philanderer: impeachment.
Misrepresenting intelligence documents to take the nation to war, leaking an active CIA operative's name, authorizing illegal wiretapping of US citizens: nothing.
Obviously, I've been getting this country's priorities wrong for quite some time. I was raised on the unfortunate assumption that the Constitution was a serious document and that foremost in the way we imagined ourselves as Americans was through the Bill of Rights. I was so obsessed with this view that I nearly made the mistake of joining the Libertarian party when I came of voting age (fortunately I realized soon enough that "civil liberties" and "libertarian" are two different things).
I'm trying to imagine what talk radio would sound like right now if it had been Clinton who was running around wiretapping US citizens or taking the country to war under false pretenses.
I made the mistake of listening to c-span radio yesterday, and they rerun the television talk shows ("Meet the Press," etc.), and I came to the realization that either most of the pundits are stupid or they are simply dishonest (OK - I actually know that the columnists are getting paid to say what they say, and a more honest George Will, for instance, would be an unemployed George Will). Then I listened to a call-in session from a rerun of c-span's own "Washington Journal," and I realized that there are several stupid people out there in the USA who call in to these shows. That led me to the understanding that if the people who care enough to follow c-span are that stupid, how dumb -- or to be fairer, how uninformed -- must the people who "don't follow politics" be?
Bill Frist was on "Meet the Press." How in the hell did this idiot ever get elected? Ethics problems aside, the guy comes off as a major-league asshole, to use Bush's phrase. He couldn't walk a straight line if you chained him to it. I can imagine him in the old days, calling for Galileo's head.
Now it also turns out that the Bush administration was leaking confidential material to Abramoff about federal investigations. If we can occupy two or three years of our national life to coverage of a blowjob, can we please devote a few months at least to the dirtbag now in power?
5 comments:
Yeah but it's like comparing Jerry Springer and Dr Phil. Jerry is just so much more entertaining to watch.
Mass, you are a good and smart egg! Have you ever considered going to law school and joining my team?
Of everyone I read, blogwise, you are one of the only ones who make me feel relieved that I am not stuck in an insane asylum. Accessible people are sometimes also sane people.
Of course, many sane people are afraid to talk about politics.
In response to your title. I would rather say that America is a 'belief'. You either believe in it or you don't.
You see, there are potent 'unbelievers'. But what is America? I would suggest that it is this intentional ideal, what is being grasped for, whenever poets speak of america.
It is a romantic notion and at the same time a technological-hierarchical state of affairs.
Unfortunately when the faith is gone, like Humpty Dumpty, all you have are pieces.
I mean politicians can manipulate nouns and verbs in speeches and in writing, that is usually the case and has been for many years, but the crucial thing is what the citizen aspires to.
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