Froomkin on the (Latest) Torture Memo
Here.
I'm starting to feel like I'm in an experiment, the point of which is to find out how evil this administration can become and still (a) retain non-trivial support among the electorate and (b) avoid any mention whatsoever of impeachment. I mean really, what else could they do? Actually torture people on the Mall? Waterboarding in the reflecting pool? Openly declare that the president can summarily execute anyone he wants? March into the National Archives and burn the Constitution?
Of course even if they did those things The National Review et. al. would still defend him with that nauseating air of faux joviality and groundless tone of superiority. I mean, clearly anyone who objects to granting the president unbridled dictatorial powers to imprison and torture anyone he wants is a sniveling pinko commie who loves terrorism and hates America.
Oh, jeez, you can't even parody it anymore. Parody just sounds like what's really happening.
It's not even clear to me that we really deserve a democracy anymore.
Here.
I'm starting to feel like I'm in an experiment, the point of which is to find out how evil this administration can become and still (a) retain non-trivial support among the electorate and (b) avoid any mention whatsoever of impeachment. I mean really, what else could they do? Actually torture people on the Mall? Waterboarding in the reflecting pool? Openly declare that the president can summarily execute anyone he wants? March into the National Archives and burn the Constitution?
Of course even if they did those things The National Review et. al. would still defend him with that nauseating air of faux joviality and groundless tone of superiority. I mean, clearly anyone who objects to granting the president unbridled dictatorial powers to imprison and torture anyone he wants is a sniveling pinko commie who loves terrorism and hates America.
Oh, jeez, you can't even parody it anymore. Parody just sounds like what's really happening.
It's not even clear to me that we really deserve a democracy anymore.
posted by Winston Smith at
11:04 PM
2 Comments:
It's not even clear to me that we really deserve a democracy anymore.
Well, we don't really have one. We have an elected dictatorship. This administration has outright stated that the president's power (under Article II) cannot be checked by Congress or the courts. This of course could change if Congress starts pushing back, but that really doesn't seem to be happening, mainly because Congress has taken impeachment, its most powerful weapon, "off the table." Remember, almost no country has ever been run by just a dictator. There's almost always a legislative body -- it's just impotent and completely pliant to will of the executive.
Of course, the next president could completely disavow these claims to far-reaching power and restore some equilibrium, but I'll believe that when I see it, since none of the candidates have done so already.
I'm starting to agree more with the Mystic's earlier claim that we're all just too preoccupied with other matters. We're all sitting by and watching as this administration makes more and more outlandish claims about the limitless nature of its power, and almost nobody seems to care.
One of the things I admire about conservatism is that--in the abstract, anyway, though not anymore in actual fact--it has this cranky, skeptical view of government. But the current crop of conservatives seem to have abandoned that completely in favor of the dark side of American conservatism--the side that seems to secretly long for a conservative strongman in control. Though, actually, it seems to me that it's really more that party loyalty is winning out over cranky skepticism about government. Unfortunately, their skepticism now seems reserved for Democratic government, no matter how restrained and competent (Clinton), never to be applied to Republican government, no matter how out-of-control and incompetent (Bush).
One of the great flaws of contemporary (roughly: post-Tip O'Neill) liberalism is that it just seems utterly gutless. Like a bunch of little girls scared of the big, bad Republicans, they flock to authorize a disastrous war, and refuse to even consider putting the brakes on an out-of-control executive.
Oh fer chrissake am I ever fed up.
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