Thursday, January 20, 2005
I Wanted To Scream
... but the words wouldn't come.
Bob Harris, whose blog is a great alternative voice in the world of overly intense myopic liberal blogging, was advocating a massive scream at noon today from the masses to protest the Inauguration.
And man, did I ever want to. I am so upset by his election, even knowing that we've been through bad presidents before. See Hoover, for example. Something just feels like there will be irreversible changes in the next four years, or at least changes that we'll not come back from in my lifetime. The politics of it unnerve me, but to the winner go the spoils.
However, there is more to this. It feels like an end to the politics of good faith. The beginnings can be seen in the probable use of the vaunted nuclear option by Bill Frist and Senate Republicans, but where will it stop? Our country was built around spirited political debate across deep divides of opinion, but there was always an understanding that the system would be safe as long as people were truly acting for the good of the country. In doing so, they would be willing to compromise and adapt - to find the will of the people through the haze of politics.
The Bush administration instead is focused on the politics of kill or be killed. Karl Rove is a master gamesman of this approach. His skill is unquestioned, but America was never intended as a place for cultlike devotion to one set of ideals. The next four years seem to me like a battle not just for the policy and the working concepts of governance. Instead, it is a battle for the soul of our democracy.
The lines are not exclusive to party here, but instead look to a key division: an acceptance that while you may not agree with other views, the role of our government is to do come to the best middle ground possible for as many people as possible; or the belief that your view is the only right view, and compromise is never acceptable. As Bush himself summed it up, "You're either with us or against us."
So, why couldn't I scream? I'm worried. I'm nervous about the soul of my country. I'm encouraged to see the voices of liberalism fight back, but I wonder if they have been drawn into a fool's game: some sort eternal battle between two sides, that instead of ending in compromise - as it has for over 200 years - will now end only in total defeat.
I just wonder if the stakes are too high.
Bob Harris, whose blog is a great alternative voice in the world of overly intense myopic liberal blogging, was advocating a massive scream at noon today from the masses to protest the Inauguration.
And man, did I ever want to. I am so upset by his election, even knowing that we've been through bad presidents before. See Hoover, for example. Something just feels like there will be irreversible changes in the next four years, or at least changes that we'll not come back from in my lifetime. The politics of it unnerve me, but to the winner go the spoils.
However, there is more to this. It feels like an end to the politics of good faith. The beginnings can be seen in the probable use of the vaunted nuclear option by Bill Frist and Senate Republicans, but where will it stop? Our country was built around spirited political debate across deep divides of opinion, but there was always an understanding that the system would be safe as long as people were truly acting for the good of the country. In doing so, they would be willing to compromise and adapt - to find the will of the people through the haze of politics.
The Bush administration instead is focused on the politics of kill or be killed. Karl Rove is a master gamesman of this approach. His skill is unquestioned, but America was never intended as a place for cultlike devotion to one set of ideals. The next four years seem to me like a battle not just for the policy and the working concepts of governance. Instead, it is a battle for the soul of our democracy.
The lines are not exclusive to party here, but instead look to a key division: an acceptance that while you may not agree with other views, the role of our government is to do come to the best middle ground possible for as many people as possible; or the belief that your view is the only right view, and compromise is never acceptable. As Bush himself summed it up, "You're either with us or against us."
So, why couldn't I scream? I'm worried. I'm nervous about the soul of my country. I'm encouraged to see the voices of liberalism fight back, but I wonder if they have been drawn into a fool's game: some sort eternal battle between two sides, that instead of ending in compromise - as it has for over 200 years - will now end only in total defeat.
I just wonder if the stakes are too high.
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