Wishful Thinking?
In the past year the progressive weblogists have engaged in a series of campaigns under the strong and completely justified urgency of rendering the GWBush administration null and void. One was the Valerie Plame affair. Another was Bush's service in the National Guard, and now we have Abu Ghraib and the accompanying calls for D. Rumsfeld to pack his bags. The progressives keep looking for the keystone that, when dislodged, will send the whole Bushian Arch of Infamy crashing to the ground.
The Plame and National Guard affairs have subsided to some extent, though they''re still present, sitting just under the surface of the current political waters and always having the potential to rise again and help bring about a long overdue reckoning for the Republicans.
Each time these campaigns have induced strong deja vu feelings in me, even though there has been such a solid string of bad events since the Bush people came into power that I have to keep reminding myself that those feelings most likely are nothing more than wishful thinking.
Still....
I was living in Washington, D.C. in the early '70's when our local newspaper, The Washington Post, suddenly started running all these articles about a break-in to the Democratic offices in the Watergate building downtown. I couldn't understand why the paper thought we should be interested, as at first it didn't seem to amount to much. It was quite an amazing experience to have lived through, to have observed how, day by day, that thing kept picking up more and more weight and momentum, until eventually it ballooned totally out of Republican control, and their President, R. Nixon, who had been elected in a landslide, was forced to resign from office before his term had ended, a first ever.
In spite of what George Santayana supposedly said, I have my doubts as to whether history ever really repeats itself, that is, in detail, and I'm glad. But an echo of sorts would be welcome any time that history is ready ...soon, that is.
The Plame and National Guard affairs have subsided to some extent, though they''re still present, sitting just under the surface of the current political waters and always having the potential to rise again and help bring about a long overdue reckoning for the Republicans.
Each time these campaigns have induced strong deja vu feelings in me, even though there has been such a solid string of bad events since the Bush people came into power that I have to keep reminding myself that those feelings most likely are nothing more than wishful thinking.
Still....
I was living in Washington, D.C. in the early '70's when our local newspaper, The Washington Post, suddenly started running all these articles about a break-in to the Democratic offices in the Watergate building downtown. I couldn't understand why the paper thought we should be interested, as at first it didn't seem to amount to much. It was quite an amazing experience to have lived through, to have observed how, day by day, that thing kept picking up more and more weight and momentum, until eventually it ballooned totally out of Republican control, and their President, R. Nixon, who had been elected in a landslide, was forced to resign from office before his term had ended, a first ever.
In spite of what George Santayana supposedly said, I have my doubts as to whether history ever really repeats itself, that is, in detail, and I'm glad. But an echo of sorts would be welcome any time that history is ready ...soon, that is.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:10 AM
1 Comments:
The Watergate incident is quite vivid to me, too. Like you, at first I thought it was just a politically motivated tempest-in-a-teapot. I didn't start to take it seriously until John Dean's testimony, and from there it all fell apart.
I'd like to think history will repeat (or a semblance thereof); all the dripping is getting pretty intense. I keep waiting for something that will wake people up. Abu Ghraib seems to have gotten more media coverage, and just might be the straw that breaks the Republican stranglehold. Even through the Plame business has receded somewhat, I wouldn't be too surprised if indictments start coming in later this summer.
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