Whenever America experiences a painful tragedy that rips this country apart they need a fixture to focus on to heal themselves. For Vietnam it was the War Memorial, that stoic, emotional rupture in the ground that lists the name of every dead American who died in that wasteful and pointless war.
For the cronyism of George Bush, that memorial is Harriet Miers.
Think of her as a living, breathing war memorial. A metaphor and signifier who also happens to be a human being.
And why not a human memorial? What better way to summarize the mistakes of cronyism and promotion of incompetence better than a living, breathing example? Harriet Miers personifies the tragedy of the George W. Bush administration better than any statue or plague could ever summarize.
She personifies everything that has failed.
She embodies all that went wrong.
Every time Miers makes a stupid decision on the Court, we will remember. Every time we look at a photo of the nine justices and realize that Clarence Thomas is now the SECOND least qualified member on the court, we will remember the George W. Bush years and cringe.
This is an administration marred by the failure to respect intelligence and maturity, and by the promotion of cronies and yes-men. Miers encapsulates this.
And years from now, when we're rebuilding from the ashes of the George W. Bush torching of this country's armed forces, economy and federal structure, we may start to forget the immediacy of the tragedy. Years will pass. Memories of the Iraq fiasco, of Tom Ridge terror alerts and John Ashcroft covering statues, of FEMA's incompetence and Condi Rice's blank stare at the 9/11 commission will fade like yellowed paper.
But Harriet Miers will still be there to remind us. And isn't that the point of every great memorial? To render anew fresh memories of a time long past?
Let Miers live on as reminder of what we let happen in this country, 2000-2008. Let children gather at her living memorial at the foot of the supreme court and marvel at her incompetence and failure. Let us all return time and again over the next twenty years to the Miers Memorial and reflect on the man who appointed her and the pain and rupture that it caused to this country.