My ten year old son's little league team won their championship, and their coach had a nice party yesterday for the trophy ceremony.
As the party thinned out, one of the coaches with whom I've had some good political discussions, asked me about the Downing Street Memos. So I sat down. I talked about John Conyer's battle with the Washington Post. I talked about how the Bushies just make up facts when they need them. From Iraq, to global warming, to the new story about grazing lands, they just make shit up.
The Republicans were leaving. That's how you know they're defeated. They won't even stay around and quote Rush or Hannity any more. To my suprise, the team manager, a California Highway Patrolman who'd stayed out of the politics all season, sat down and started talking too. Turns out he'd been against the war since before it, something even the more liberal parents admitted they'd been fooled by the Bushies on.
In that situation, I always tell them I wasn't fooled because I listened to Scott Ritter before the war. Ritter's book, Frontier Justice, in 2003 told the story of how Ritter refuted everything Bush was saying about Iraqi WMDs, and was the victim of the wing-nut character assassins as a result.
The entire Powell presentation was a farce, filled with satellite pictures that show nothing, but claim to show everything. During my time as a weapons inspector, the United States repeatedly provided so-called evidence of this nature, displaying photograph after photograph ostensibly showing Iraqi evacuation operations in response to U.N. inspection activitiy. On two occasions, one in Baghdad and the other in Tikrit, inspectors were able to show that the vehicular activity in question actually related to the gathering and distribution of food supplies. On all other occasions the imagery in question was so vague as to make any definitive judgment impossible. In every case, Hans Blix and his inspectors were able to travel to these sites and conduct a forensic investigation to determine what, if anything, actually tood place. Of course, Colin Powell failed to mention that the U.N. inspectors had done exacxtly that at the nearly one dozen "high priority" sites designated by the CIA, and turned up nothing.
Of course, my fellow little league parents had all seen my bumper stickers, so they expect to hear Bush bashing from me. But what's changed since the shit started hitting the fan is that the moderate Republicans are listening to the bashing now, even joining in in some cases, and the wingnuts just get angry, vile, and more stupid.
So what struck me about the whole odd and awkward situation at this little league party was that the Republicans were leaving slowly, and listening as they walked by. And my son was quietly eating pizza and listening. When I was done, I said, "You know, Spencer, this isn't really about politics. This is way beyond politics. This is about the fact that all of us here have sons who might get drafted in 6 or 8 years, and for what?"
Silence. Republicans shuffling off. Homer talking in my head about what I would do for a beer. Liberals looking at their shoes, shrugging. My son wishing I wasn't so damn sad all the time.
Now I'm thinking about what George W. Bush has done to a world that was united after a great tragedy. I have so many liberal friends who, no matter how hard they try, just can't get happy. Everywhere we turn we're confronted with proof that the future is seriously fucked, for our retirement, for our children's future, for our grandchildren.
Even if we impeach these hoodlums tomorrow, and seriously trash the republican party in the next 50 elections, we'll still be undoing what this one man has done in one stint as "leader" of the "free" world.
How damn depressing is that? As a father, I feel a drive to leave this world better than I found it. After what GW Bush has done to this planet, I feel a distinct sense of failure. I can only hope that the Republicans who shuffled off without even saying goodbye felt the same sense of guilt and hopelessness. The thought that they could actually walk around this earth proud of what they've done disgusts me to no end.