That the Republicans have – as they have with every other part of government that they touch – rendered it illegitimate.
When Nixon was caught violating the law and the Constitution, Congress fulfilled its constitutional duty, impeached him, and forced his resignation. The justice system brought criminal charges against several of his staff, and the system worked.
From that day, Republican true believers swore revenge. When they got the chance with a Republican House and a Democrat in the White House, they wasted $40 million dollars and six years investigating actions that took place before Clinton was in the White House, and still could not invent any charges to bring against him.
But Republicans, even before the reign of King George II, never let facts get in the way of their abuse of power. They used Clinton’s irresponsible quasi-sexual activity to manufacture something that was not a crime, but could be used as an excuse to impeach him. Alas, even the Senate could not be convinced to actually convict the man for merely being a sleazeball.
Though they did not succeed in removing Clinton from office, they did accomplish two goals. They hung a mantle of disgrace over his otherwise startlingly successful administration. And they hung the label of political expediency over the entire process of constitutional accountability.
Thus, here we are. Bush, Cheney, and their minions have clearly spent the last six years perpetrating violations of the laws and constitution that would make Nixon blanch (and have outraged former Nixon White House officers!). That is both obvious and troubling. But were the Democrats to find the backbone needed to start impeachment – or even investigative – proceedings, Republicans would once again use their most damning accusation against them.
Vote for Republicans.
Because you don’t want to vote for Democrats.
Because they’re just like Republicans!!
And the worst part is, for the Stepford voters of America, such twisted logic actually works.
Orwell would be amazed that, even with their less than total control of information (all they control is the major news media outlets), Republicans can still get away with turning the world upside down with their newspeak campaign slogans.
All we poor mortals can do is keep pointing that out.