This could also be entitled "flashback." I warn you, this will attempt to meld personal experience and political observation. Since as I begin this it is almost 2 AM in Williamsburg Virginia, I cannot guarantee coherence, hell, I can't even promise intelligence.
Tonight a group of us from the seminar, ranging in age from early 20's (my suitemate) to 60 (me) went out to a couple of bars on the edge of the William & Mary Campus. It is that journey that provokes (because I cannot claim inspiration for what I am about to write) this diary. If you are willing to risk wasting time, or brain cells, I invite you to continue reading.
And if not -- the hell with you. I haven `t done a diary for several days, and you ought to give me the benefit of the doubt.
In my younger days (my 20's) I spent far too much time in bars that catered to young singles, first in New York (where the legal age was 18) and then Philadelphia. I worked --as bouncer and doorman - in both cities. And since I am basically shy (I knew some of you have trouble believing it, but trust me, spend any time with me and it is obvious) I would spend a lot of time observing.
There are games that go on, of course. But to the seasoned observer, so much is obvious from the get-go -- who will strike out multiple times, who is there not to hookup but to tease (and this applies to all gender identifications). who is not sure with whom or if, and those who will simply go with the flow. In my single male days, if a group females came in you first determined who was driving, because she would be the last to pair off. Sexist? Perhaps, but also realistic.
As I watched, even as I conversed with my fellow seminar mates, it was fascinating to watch, and to be able to predict almost inerrantly what would transpire. In a sense i was back to 35 years ago, even though I was now solely an observer and no longer a possible participant. The cigarette smoke, the body language, the interactions I observed -- I was transported back to a time I thought I had forgotten...
So why am I writing this on a political blog? Because today I have had a similar experience, reading blogs, reading the news. I feel transported back to times and events I thought I had forgotten.
I look at the event transpiring at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean and I wonder if Arik Sharon is not still in charge? I think of Sabra and Shatilla, I think of previous attacks upon and destruction of Beirut and wonder if we have forgotten the spawn of those previous attacks?
I read about the proposed bill before Specter and the Judiciary Committee and I am transported back to a presidency that did not think that the Congress had any right to know, that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of this nation could be used to "screw our enemies" as that administration so delicately put it.
I remember what it was like to be young, horny and lonely --and it is the last of these that was often the most operative -- even if one had company going home the activities that resulted often did not assuage the loneliness.
We had fears in the late 60s and early 70s'. We saw disruption at home, a seemingly endless war overseas, and increasingly we learned about an administration which did not think it was bound by law or Constitutional restrictions. But eventually the legislative and judicial branches stood up and drew lines in the sand (for some reason that idea keeps occurring to me nowadays). Yes, the Congress was in different hands than the executive, but the final proposed articles of impeachment were largely drafted by Republicans, members of the same party as the now-disgraced president of that time, Richard Milhous Nixon. They had names we may have forgotten -- William Cohen of Maine, Caldwell Butler of Virginia, Larry Hogan of Maryland ... and of course others. These were people for whom the Constitution mattered more than party or political advantage.
Deja vu all over again. Yogi Berra is credited with that term. It is often offered as an example of a malapropism, but in fact it is so appropriate -- because we have seen and experienced before.
Except -- I see no Bill Cohens or Caldwell Butlers. I see people who go through the motions but ultimately cave -- John McCain cannot have it both ways -- either this administration is torturing and ignoring the Congress and he should condemn or stop pretending to care because you want to be president. Arlen Specter can claim whatever independence he wants, but when he is prepared to excuse the administration for its past misdeeds and license the future misdeeds, he values his chairmanship more than he does the Constitution that chairmanship has an especial responsibility to safeguard.
And the Democrats? We had warhawk democrats in the late 60s and early 70s, and we had those who abandoned George McGovern in a fashion the Joe Lieberman cannot help but bring to mind
Deja vu -- I have seen such a political scenario before, more than once. In the 1970s, patriots of both parties stood up, and addressed the crises facing the nation. In the 1980s, during Iran Contra, Howard Baker gave up his presidential ambitions and the Congress was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but the line moved - a president and an administration `got away' with much more with little recompense or consequence.
And now? In the bars I could look at the players and predict with near certainty the results. Basic human nature -- sexual desire, loneliness -- are fairly stable. The music is different, the setting somewhat so, but the dynamics have not changed that much.
What scares the hell out of me is looking at our political and civic life. The crises are clearly deja vu, but I cannot predict with any confidence what will happen.
As a Quaker I try to find that of God in each person that I can answer. I try to walk gladly across the earth as I do so. As a teacher I always try to be optimistic, to assume that every student CAN succeed.
I know that I cannot continue as if every new encounter is a crisis of significance. The problem is - - this is yet another deja vu -- every few months we have yet another further gross abuse by this administration with no consequences, not recompense, not even a mild chastisement from the Congress. We get one narrow decision in Hamdan and it is so unusual that we think it might make a difference.
I do not yet despair. I have been through these things before. But if this is not "all over again", if this is truly different, it will be because the other branches of government did not assert themselves as is their constitutional responsibility. It will also be because the press has not informed the American people, and pressured the other branches to "do the right thing."
And then we will have different kind of deja vu all over again. We will come to realize that America the first decade of the 21st century bears a striking resemblance to Weimar Germany.
Only this will not be all over again, it will have a finality. Already at website like the blog at the Rapture Report people are delighted in events in the Middle East, believing it means that we are that closer to the "rapture." What is occurring at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean is a direct product of our actions in Iraq, and the possibility of escalation is frightening.
I do not know how much longer we will be able to share our perspective, our hopes and our fears. Condition Red is probably closer than we realize.
Let me give you some deja vu. James Schlesinger, Nixon's' final SecDef, called the commanders of all military bases within several ours of Washington to ask them to inform him if they received orders to move troops to the nation's capital. He was worried that Nixon would use the military to stay in power.
We have seen what is effectively a purge of independent minded military leaders. We have seen manipulation of the judicial and electoral processes. Deja vu all over -- and you can complete the thought.
it is now 2:30. I will spell check, check for other obvious typos, and then post this.
I hope this is deja vu all over again, because that means people of both parties, in the Congress and the Judiciary, in the press and in the public at large, even within the president's administration, will step up and ensure that the republic, the constitution, the nation as we know it survives.
if not, then it will not be deja vu as we think, but of a different kind, as we morph into the equivalent of Germany post-1933.
I can only hope that it truly is deja vu all over again. I really do not want to consider the alternative.