Goodbye and good riddance
Tomorrow, a new President is inaugurated. An historic inauguration, to be sure, but one that finally puts an end to Georgie's execrable reign. With a final smirk to everyone who fell for his act, he leaves not caring that he is, by many measures, the worst President in history. Certainly one of the most reviled, worldwide. He leaves a broken country behind, after promising to unite and even, later, protect it. We are directly involved in two wars, indirectly in at least one more, in a terrible economic crisis, without civil protections and liberties we once cherished, detained American citizens indefinitely, and not only have committed torture, and sent people to others to torture for us, but changed the dialog such that torture is talked about it as if it were not obscene.
Last weekend, I was having an argument with Brons about whether or not he would be issuing preventative pardons of the dozens, maybe more, involved in the crimes done by his Administration. He has been stomaching the final interviews of Georgie and the A.F.M.L.TM and seems convinced that they believe they didn't do anything wrong, so there won't be any last minute surprise pardons. I'm not convinced: Georgie and his boys spent every waking moment of the last eight years circumventing, lying, obscuring, and inventing whole new legal arguments to cover up and make what they were doing retroactively legal. (Hell, Dickie declared himself not part of the three branches of American government.) And when they couldn't do that they fell upon the old "we're doing it for your good" argument. I'm sure there are an éminence grise or three, along with their minions, who will make sure the right people walk away without needing to worry about looking over their shoulders. (In this country, anyway.)
There are others who, clearly, failed in their jobs as well. There was no sustained or credible attempt at opposition, or oversight, or protest. I mean, when Georgie gets up and says, right to the camera, that he purposefully broke federal laws and no one does anything.... Paraphrasing Sec. Rumsfeld, it seemed that those who could have done more settled for the President we have, not the one we wished we could have. And while some think that Georgie and those around him felt they were playing having the ultimate frat party, I suspect he knew exactly what he wanted to do and just didn't care what anyone else thought. Of course, now that he is headed out the door, voices from all sides are speaking out. Too little, too late, and all of the backlash will end up, unjustifiably, on the back of the next administration.
I guess the joke is on me. He's headed out the door with a comfortable pension (at our expense) and able to move into a nice mansion in a wealthy suburb and surround himself with the sycophants that he helped or help him get to where he is and doesn't even have to clean up after himself. And the graybeards are already saying that we should look to the future, not dredge up the past. (A wholly offensive line of argument. "Well, Your Honor, it's true that this young man careened drunkenly through downtown, killing three children and ended up with his car burning down the supermarket, but he's got a great career in the NFL to look forward to, so let's look at the future, not the past.")
He's got about twelve hours left to bring more shame to this nation, but then he'll be gone. And good riddance. I can only hope the next time we hear about him is when he's dragged before a court in chains to answer for his crimes. I suppose the best I can realistically hope for is for him to fade into obscurity while they wash the stains off the walls of the Oval Office.
Last weekend, I was having an argument with Brons about whether or not he would be issuing preventative pardons of the dozens, maybe more, involved in the crimes done by his Administration. He has been stomaching the final interviews of Georgie and the A.F.M.L.TM and seems convinced that they believe they didn't do anything wrong, so there won't be any last minute surprise pardons. I'm not convinced: Georgie and his boys spent every waking moment of the last eight years circumventing, lying, obscuring, and inventing whole new legal arguments to cover up and make what they were doing retroactively legal. (Hell, Dickie declared himself not part of the three branches of American government.) And when they couldn't do that they fell upon the old "we're doing it for your good" argument. I'm sure there are an éminence grise or three, along with their minions, who will make sure the right people walk away without needing to worry about looking over their shoulders. (In this country, anyway.)
There are others who, clearly, failed in their jobs as well. There was no sustained or credible attempt at opposition, or oversight, or protest. I mean, when Georgie gets up and says, right to the camera, that he purposefully broke federal laws and no one does anything.... Paraphrasing Sec. Rumsfeld, it seemed that those who could have done more settled for the President we have, not the one we wished we could have. And while some think that Georgie and those around him felt they were playing having the ultimate frat party, I suspect he knew exactly what he wanted to do and just didn't care what anyone else thought. Of course, now that he is headed out the door, voices from all sides are speaking out. Too little, too late, and all of the backlash will end up, unjustifiably, on the back of the next administration.
I guess the joke is on me. He's headed out the door with a comfortable pension (at our expense) and able to move into a nice mansion in a wealthy suburb and surround himself with the sycophants that he helped or help him get to where he is and doesn't even have to clean up after himself. And the graybeards are already saying that we should look to the future, not dredge up the past. (A wholly offensive line of argument. "Well, Your Honor, it's true that this young man careened drunkenly through downtown, killing three children and ended up with his car burning down the supermarket, but he's got a great career in the NFL to look forward to, so let's look at the future, not the past.")
He's got about twelve hours left to bring more shame to this nation, but then he'll be gone. And good riddance. I can only hope the next time we hear about him is when he's dragged before a court in chains to answer for his crimes. I suppose the best I can realistically hope for is for him to fade into obscurity while they wash the stains off the walls of the Oval Office.