The rejection of a mythical universe

AS I WATCHED the TV coverage of the  arrival of Barack Obama's gleaming train in the dark frigid  climate of  Union Station,  it finally convinced me that the November election was not a mirage after all,  and that America had turned the corner  from what had long been our shame.  Even though the Deep South states continued to cling to the remnants of the Confederacy, entrapping the Republican Party in its illusions about modern democracy, an African-American, with some 9.5. million votes to spare, would now sit in the Oval Office as president -and nothing less.

 The miracle, as it has been widely declared by the media for lack of anything more profoundly descriptive, is something that not only today's generation but generations to come can savor when young students sit in their American history classes to trace the twists and turns of the presidency.  In some ways it was the Jackie Robinson story on a much wider societal field. It should be a proud conceit of every American now to know that we have made an enormous stride in confirming that we are what we say we are. It wasn't that long ago, after all, that I, as a young uniformed Air Force officer was denied a seat in a St. Louis hotel bar because I was accompanied by another officer who happened to be black.  (The host apologized to me, sort of, but said I would understand as a  military officer that rules are rules.) 

But Obama's victory told us another story that mythologized (for me, as well) the potency of coast to coast rants by right wing flim-flam talkers who decided to raise the ante on a black presidential nominee.  Fox News, the megaphone and safe house for the Bush Adminstration, referred to Michelle  Obama as "Obama's baby mama"), a day did not pass when some radio host didn't connect Obama to a monkey (which, it can be argued, all of us evolved from ), and there were warnings making the rounds that Obama would lead us into a race war.  He was at times compared to Hitler, and other times linked to Ahmadinejad.   Communist, socialist,terrorist, traitor, classless jerk.  The perps included the grandmaster himself, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and countless talk-show galley slaves across the land who doubtless believe that their dutiful rowing of  Limbaugh's flagship would someday make them sinfully rich, too.  

The moral of their  tasteless rapture with lies and more lies is that they failed miserably.  Even to this day they continue to flail at imaginary objects with endless  deception from the shared security  of their own disgusting universe, where honest debate is not a prerequisite for honorary membership. These thugs can't be too smart.  If they were, they would look for ways to make their hysterical charges hold up under even the most casual scrutiny.

So now the Bushes and their ilk will soon be on  their way out the door.  There will be no more utterances (by Richard Perle) that within six months of the invasion the grateful Iraqis would name a central plaza in Baghdad after George Bush; there would be no more aircraft carriers idling off the West Coast for the landing of a macho Bush in flight gear to declare the end of the war;  there would be no more uplifting statements by Bush and his echoers that the fundamentals of America's economy are  strong;  no more denials by Condi Rice that the White House had no forewarning of 9/11;  and a lot of other nonsensical behavior that amounted to a giant pyramid of Plato's noble lie as Bush's  approval rating in a Gallup survey was mired at 22 pct.    

As for the broadcast carnival barkers' persistence in recklessly  spinning the facts, I must reluctantly  defer to Donald Rumsfeld's oratorical sensitivities in describing the continued conflict in Iraq after we had declared the battle  won.  Of it, he explained:

"The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long  after their cause is lost." (Aug. 25, 2003)   

Clip and mail to that other universe.

Running cover for Bush

EVEN AS we await the few moments left until George Bush renditions himself back to Texas, his friends in the administration are doing their damnedest to give him cover while they think of odd things to say - lies, really - about his legacy.  I was particularly astonished that he was said to have read more books than a Doubleday editor, including in the past year the works of Albert Camus.  As one who once took a study course in, of all things, existentialism, I can tell you that Camus doesn't always come through that clearly on first reading, especially so when you are someone who is supposed to be preoccupied with workaday matters like... oh, rising unemployment and closed retail enterprises across the spectrum.  One wonders why his apologists didn't advance  such books as Treasure Island or Wizard of Oz as his night-table reading staples.   His entire cabinet could relate to them and grade the president accordingly.  Besides, being a defiant Frenchman, Camus never regarded himself as an existentialist, although most other literary people do.   But that's another story.

Meantime, regarding the legacy, we are told to be patient in a waiting  game until the truth is fully known about his historic  accomplishments. That tactic recalls the six-month leaps of faith "until we hear from General Petraeus" - now a shopworn quaint phrase no longer useful for the Bushies' political survival.  Karl Rove, Dana Perino, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are all huddling on their own two yard line to throw a 98-yard touchdown pass that would still leave the game well out of reach for them.  So what else is new?   This is a team that has been in denial for so long that they don't recognize the benefit of simply cutting and running  while leaving a toppling world to their successors.  Won't happen.  Not with this gang.  Not with the legacy thing.  It's their last remaining false hope.