The revelation that Cheney sought to use a whomped-up terror rationale to "test" Constitutional protections against the militarization of domestic space has, in itself, more the character of a non-revelation. It is, after all, just another skirmish in his well-known lifelong effort to implement, elaborate, and consolidate an Imperial "unitary executive," that is, to rewrite the despised American experiment in equitable pluralism in the image of his own more authoritarian preferences.
What is more intriguing is that this revelation has been the latest in a series of ongoing disclosures of Bush Administration wrongdoing in which a discernible Bush camp opposing a definite Cheney camp seem to be jockeying for public position in a larger battle the stakes of which are never completely clear.
Given the starkness and the scale of wrongdoing -- war crimes, relentless deceptions, serial unconstitutionalities -- there is a gravity well tugging even an inertial incumbent Washington culture and sunnily pragmatic Obama Change message slowly in the direction of the Courts in which, whatever anybody's wishes in the matter, the epic-scaled crimes and wrongs of the last decade will be perilous for the figures in the prior Administration (or else will spell peril for the would-be Republic of Laws).
Obama certainly seems to be doing all he can to postpone the ugly reckoning as long as he can, struggling to create a space of "good feelings" in which long deferred work to solve environmental, healthcare, trade, and labor problems gets done (judging the US quite simply to have no chance at a viable future unless that work does happen), and rightly expecting the reckoning with the long stupid bloody epoch of Movement Republicanism to provoke an explosion of resentments and paralysis that even now is always boiling right beneath the surface of things.
Still, the legal information requests, the sinister dot-connecting disclosures, the public investigations, the proliferating lawsuits keep coming, accumulating like a pyramid of skulls aspiring to Heaven. It does seem to me that something momentous is eventually coming in the way of accountability, and that the opposing Bush and Cheney camps are already working to position themselves for that reckoning.
The narrative that seems to me to be emerging is one in which Cheney is forced to assume responsibility for the worst and Bush is humiliated as a dumb pawn of Cheney's diabolism. While Cheney may seem the loser in such an outcome (and certainly his curious post-Administration public profile indicates recognition of high stakes), in the larger sense Bush's buffoon defense will insulate a Presidency made more Imperial through Cheney's life work from real accountability (which makes it almost inevitable that we will eventually edge toward the Rubicon of outright authoritarianism again all too soon).
Bush's ritual humiliation is unlikely to sting so much as all that from inside his bubble of privilege, and whatever price is exacted from Cheney and those loyal to him he will surely, in the fullness of time, regard his structural undermining of "the mob" a worthy contribution to his highest calling.
Obama, no doubt like every President after him will do, shows a real fondness for some of the novel Imperiality in the Executive Cheney has gifted him, and you can be sure that it will not be from the Presidency itself that its poisonous potential will be checked.
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3 comments:
> Cheney sought to use a whomped-up terror rationale to "test"
> Constitutional protections against the militarization of
> domestic space. . . to rewrite the despised American experiment
> in equitable pluralism in the image of his own more authoritarian
> preferences. . . Given the starkness and the scale of
> wrongdoing -- war crimes, relentless deceptions, serial
> unconstitutionalities -- there is a gravity well tugging
> even an inertial incumbent Washington culture. . .
> Bush's buffoon defense will insulate a Presidency made more
> Imperial through Cheney's life work from real accountability
> (which makes it almost inevitable that we will eventually
> edge toward the Rubicon of outright authoritarianism again
> all too soon). . . Cheney. . . will surely, in the fullness
> of time, regard his structural undermining of "the mob" a worthy
> contribution to his highest calling.
You know, during the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it seemed
blindingly obvious to me that one of the certain outcomes
of the event would be that authoritarian politicians would
use it as a perfect excuse to roll back civil rights and bolster
police power in this country (never mind what the CIA and
the military get up to abroad).
Nobody I talked to back then seemed particularly interested in
that angle, though -- folks were so full of outrage over
the event itself, and so full of a sort of reflexive,
free-floating patriotic sentiment looking for an outlet,
that it seemed the height of rudeness to dare to question
the motivations of the leaders who were expected to handle
the mess.
Ah well. To every thing there is a season. . . a time
to keep silence, and a time to speak.
Turn, turn, turn. What's the party line this week?
Carrico: Obama, no doubt like every President after him will do, shows a real fondness for some of the novel Imperiality in the Executive Cheney has gifted him, and you can be sure that it will not be from the Presidency itself that its poisonous potential will be checked.
Do you think it is likely that the reason why Obama is reluctant to relinquish the imperial executive powers he has inherited is because he wants to have all the tools possible at his disposal to prevent a terrorist attack that would not only destroy the claim that he and Democrats can keep the homeland safe but ensure that Republicans regain and stay in power for decades to come?
No, I don't.
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