March 13, 2006
DOES AMERICA HAVE THE COURAGE TO SAVE ITS DEMOCRACY?
During the recent Harper Forum which investigated the need for inquiries into the possible impeachment of President Bush, Congressman John Conyers wondered out loud if the media would even report that the forum had been held. In the main, it did not.
Conyers has introduced a bill asking for the formation of a bi-partisan Select Committee to take testimony under oath which would ultimately allow Congress either to proceed or not proceed with articles of impeachment. The testimony would regard many issues: the misrepresentation of pre-invasion intelligence concerning Iraq; potential violations of human rights at Guantanamo; possible instances of illegal torture by US military and intelligence personnel; apparent deception about national preparedness pre-Katrina; misuse of government funds in Iraq; violations of law with regard to domestic surveillance; obstruction of justice and other possible crimes with regard to the Valerie Plame matter; violations of law with regard to the now defunct Dubai ports deal; voting irregularities in both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections--to name just a few.
Conyers' question carries with it an ominous implication: that neither the media nor the American people at present have the courage to pursue this issue, even though it is of critical importance to the integrity and perhaps the survival of our democracy.
Certainly, there are no issues above as glitzy as sex in the Oval Office. The Bush Administration has no semen-stained blue dresses or marital infidelities to titillate an American public whose prurience is fed seemingly by every TV ad, every sordid headline, every cleavage-laden anchor woman. All it has is the coffins of the military dead, the missing limbs of the military wounded, the rubble of the Gulf hurricanes, the unemployment lines which have resulted from the exportation of US jobs. Not nice things--but hey, not very sexually stimulating.
Perhaps it behooves us to ask why the American media and American people seem far less upset about Bush's possible indiscretions than they were about Clinton's. It is a question of some importance, and I wish I had a definitive answer. I only have an opinion. The dumbing down of American education coincident with the consolidation of the media into very few and generally corporately-controlled hands has made Bush's indiscretions less interesting, less profitable, and more dangerous to those who control the nation.
I have been ashamed of my country for some time now, particularly the manner in which it has substituted the special interest prostitution of our government for what was once a representative democracy. But as an educator, I am also ashamed of what we have allowed our schools to become, of the level of greed in our business world, and of the devolvement of the news industry into tabloidism.
I believe it will only be when the pain of war, economic decline, the inability to deal with natural disasters, the cost of energy, the degradation of our environment, etc. becomes so palpable as to make millions cry out that we will be forced to come to our senses and to adopt the courage needed to cleanse our democratic house.
And no one wants to be proven wrong more than I.
Dr. Steven Porter
Democratic candidate for Congress, PA-03
www.porter4congress2006.com