R. Jay Sand
I’m old enough to remember the corrupt Nixon (is that redundant?) era first hand. Whenever I ponder that fact, it makes me very nervous about history’s annoying habit of repeating itself. It also reminds me that my family lost a beloved, young relative to the then raging war in Vietnam and that once again -decades later- young Americans are coming home in flag draped coffins by the score. Again, a very unpopular but extremely profitable war rages on. It doesn’t take a degree in political science to realize that what happened then is frighteningly similar to the horrors of the present.
After Nixon’s disgrace, some of us thought that it would be a very long time before another Republican president would be allowed to serve. When an unknown Democrat named Jimmy Carter was elected, that solidified our beliefs that the GOP was dead in the water. How wrong we indeed were!
Even though Carter is spoken as the most honest and decent man to occupy the Oval Office, his presidency had many faults. One of which was that he tried to micro-manage his administration instead of delegating authority. He and congress did not get along and consequently, was not able to get much done. The Iranian hostage debacle occurred and on and on… The Republicans of course, exploited all of these facts and more. Still, he lead Reagan in the polls during the next presidential campaign. Now enter the “moral” conservative George Will armed with Carter’s stolen debate prep which he made full use of. This made Ronnie look like the warm and smiling genius he surely was not while simultaneously making Carter look angry and bewildered. Still, Carter lead in the polls. Then came the ill fated hostage rescue attempt. The GOP engineered, filthy arms for hostages deal and we all know what happened next. Yes, Bonzo’s “Dad” got to run the country and eventually head the most indicted administration in history. Now back to the present and the revisionist historians have conveniently “forgotten” the Iran/Contra mega-scandal. The present corporate owned, main stream media doesn’t care and Reagan has ascended to political Mount Olympus as their beloved Republican deity.
How did we go from mega-scandal to short term Democratic White House control then swiftly back to a Republican presidency? Can the same scenario play out again? Will the Dems win big in the short run only to suffer in the following election cycle once again? You’re damned right it can happen and probably will due to many of the same factors as before but this time, it could be even worse. No matter what President Bush does, the media treats him with loving kid gloves. If Bill Clinton had been accused of just a tiny fraction of this administration’s sins, he would have been drawn and quartered by the press. This double standard is not only disturbing, it is flagrantly hypocritical to say the least. We also have more to consider. The Democrats in congress still run scared out of their collective mind at the sight of a Republican and still refuse to use the tools granted them by the Constitution. The so-called liberal media has been swallowed up completely by the right wing. The courts are stacked to the brim with ultra-conservatives. Our system of voting is now in the hands of a few private corporations and is still devoid of a paper trail. But most offensive of all is that the electorate’s penchant for voting complacency quite simply knows no bounds.
Does this sound paranoid? Perhaps. But, considering what we have been through
since the “election” of 2000, paranoia should now be considered a gift.