The State of the Union on Tuesday was appalling.
And it remains stunning to me that so few seem to be commenting on how truly appalling it was, or what was most appalling about it.
Consider the context – the context that was invisible watching the event:
- A deeply, deeply misguided, amoral President, whose policies were soundly rebuked in November, nevertheless has the gall to ignore the collective opinion and collective wisdom of the American public and continue pursuing a truly disastrous policy in Iraq, with the high likelihood of near-term and long-term, bad – worsening – repercussions for almost all Americans, and perhaps all humanity.
- This president comes striding into the US capitol, run by the Democratic opposition for the first time in his administration.
(Please cross the divide to see what happened!)
I had wondered that afternoon whether it would be better to confront the President solemnly or with hostility – to merely tolerate his presence with grave remorse – sitting silently through the tedium, or to actively repudiate him, maybe by walking out on the speech.
Apparently, all the things Bush has done – to our country, to the Constitution, to the world – aren’t that serious or vile in the eyes of our Representatives. Certainly not vile enough to disrupt the pomp and circumstance of a State of the Union pageant. Not vile enough to even skip a beat.
How would you characterize the reception Bush received?
The words that floated through my mind watching the TV with the sound off came from the old Steve Miller song "The Joker":
"...lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time..."
Speaker Pelosi had a good 20 minutes of friendly banter with Vice President Cheney. So, I’m curious: did he share any good habeas corpus jokes? (You know he’s got ‘em.)
Did she use the occasion to re-assure him that, regardless of how many impeachable offenses senior administration officials have committed, and continue to commit, she will remain (ahem) pragmatic about looking the other way?
The evidence has been abundant in other respects, I guess, but the State of the Union really brought home for me in a visceral way that November’s results appear to have changed the cast, but done little to change the fundamental trajectory of our country.
Our new Democratic majority in the House and Senate clearly isn’t that upset about Bush’s track record, or his intensifying attraction to the abyss.
That crazy George! What a character!
They clearly are thrilled to be back in the "leadership." Tingly all over, one would gather.
Over the December holidays, my five-year old son began, for the first time, to understand Iraq. I had bought a National Geographic magazine to read the cover story on Saturn. A few days later, I came across my son studying, with grave curiosity, at the pictures that accompany the extensive essay in the same issue on war medicine in Iraq (thank goodness he’s never had to see such stuff on TV!).
"What had happened to those people?"
Which led to lots of questions about the how and why of the war – questions that no one can really answer. Especially in 2007.
My five-year-old clearly found the discussion confusing. We are continuing to send more of our fellow citizens – our neighbors, family-members, and friends – to be turned into the people in the pictures? When no one really believes there is a reason to do so?
That cannot be right, can it?
That is a really bad thing to do to those people, isn’t it?
My five-year-old seems to have a clearer perspective, and a better functioning moral compass, than our Congressional leaders.
(Disclosure: my five year old has not had the opportunity to review any focus-group findings.)
The comment that prompted me to turn off the sound during the State of the Union came from a bloviator who remarked that those seats in the House chamber sure are comfortable. "Easy to fall asleep in."
I guess so. Wouldn’t want to risk losing those comfortable seats with any overly rash recognition of obvious moral truths, obvious strategic truths, or blindingly obvious realities.
Even with the volume off, just watching the lingering close-ups of our political celebrities, I could hear the faint sound, in the distance, of "Presidential front-runners" Hillary Clinton and John McCain frantically triangulating the situation. Apparently Frank Rich heard it, too (Note: behind idiotic firewall).
And I found myself asking today – even more desperately now than when Republican troglodytes appeared to hold a death grip on our legislative institutions (in addition to the Presidency):
What the hell happened to our country?
I thought that even Alice, after her travails "Through the Looking Glass" finally got to wake up. I decided to go back and re-read the end of that book this afternoon.
In fact, Alice (unlike our Congress) finally did have the courage to grab the Red Queen and shake her – though be it only as the nonsensical tyrant shrunk to the size of a doll. (I guess that kind of shrinkage would correspond to – what – about a 22 in the approval ratings? Maybe its coming?)
But then, the chilling end of the book – and the chilling aptness of the metaphor I (and others) have sometimes thought of over the last few years of surreal Republican hegemony – hit home: at the end of the day, Alice was still just a delusional little girl, who convinced herself that the Red Queen had been nothing but a kitten, and that the whole nightmare had been nothing but a dream.
In which case, why not have a delightful, lovey-dovey, tea-party on the occasion of the State of the Union?
Its someone else’s kids getting maimed in Iraq, anyway (the gruff guy who is the exception to this was absent from the proceedings) – and the future reckoning is a long way off... probably after November, 2008, anyway...