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Like many of you, I’m finding myself positively gleeful about the possibility of the Bush Administration going down in flames in a major scandal. I admit that I am drooling over the prospect. Each morning I wake up eager to see how this story is developing in the press and on my favorite political websites—namely DU. Can you imagine: Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, and other ranking administration officials getting barbecued in televised impeachment hearings? (I highly doubt that Cheney and Bush will be hauled before Congress.) Oh, the joy I will feel when Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly and the rest of the reactionary pig punditry eat crow big time—or feebly try to spin their way out. What a comedy that will be.
Quite simply, I want revenge. Revenge for all the years of listening to these holier-than-thou hypocrites browbeat and attack the “amoral” liberals and beat their chest about how Bush has restored dignity and accountability to the White House. It’s looking like these paragons of virtue are about to be raked over the coals in a big way, and I am LOVING IT.
But god dammit, the vindication I will feel when these bastards go down means nothing in the larger historical context of this tragic mess. Not only have Bush and the GOP (and the Republican-lite Democrats, of course) wrought incalculable damage to our economy, our environment, our educational institutions, our healthcare, our system of justice, our standing in the international community, etc., etc., but their abuses and their resultant downfall (which I believe is inevitable at this point) will bring to a new generation the already widespread political apathy and cynicism about government that pervades our society-- and which results in abysmal voter turnout and the destruction of our democracy. These bastards are about to give us this generation’s Watergate, a political scandal that will ensure that untold numbers of young people (who may be too young to remember the original Watergate) will be convinced that government is pure corruption.
Yes, I believe that there is a shelf-life to the wholesale mistrust of government and the political process that was inaugurated in large part by the Nixon administration. Good government could have restored a large degree of faith in our political system. A politically engaged, civic-minded society might have re-emerged with good leadership and honest government.
But, of course that is far from what we have today.
Thanks a lot you lying, criminal bastards, for kicking off another generation of political apathy and cynicism. May you all rot in prison.
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