coug-
what do you have when you have a nation
that knows it's being fed lies and doesn't
care? a nation ripe for fascism.
the man who said this first said it a very
long time ago. that brilliant, difficult,
crotchety benjamin franklin, aged 81, muttered
it in 1787 in philadelphia as the constitution
was being signed.
"I agree to this Constitution with all its faults . . . because I think a General Government necessary
for us, and there is no Form of Government but what
may be a Blessing to the People if well administered;
and I believe further that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end
in Despotism as other Forms have done before it when
the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other".
.... from this article on the veep debate.
Facts and figures of speech
By HEATHER MALLICK
UPDATED AT 1:46 PM EDT Saturday, Oct 9, 2004
Watching the U.S. vice-presidential debate was like watching a cowboy movie -- the old-fashioned kind, entirely without nuance. See, the cute-as-a-new-foal cowboy on the right is wearing a white hat; the snarling gunslinger on the left coiled like a fat snake is wearing a black hat. A bit obvious, no?
It even lasted an hour and a half, like a movie. But it was still too much; I was reeling from VP Dick Cheney's lies, which he delivered by rote, so used is he to telling them. What was odd was that this time, he was telling them to Senator John Edwards, an actual trial lawyer famous for winning over tough juries.
Mr. Cheney's lies were all easily disproved within hours. Mr. Cheney said he had never met Mr. Edwards until that night (cut to footage of Mr. Edwards and Mr. Cheney at a political breakfast on Feb. 1, 2001). Mr. Cheney said he presides over the Senate every Tuesday and had never seen Mr. Edwards there; yeah, reported The Daily Show, two Tuesdays in four years.
Mr. Cheney said he had never claimed Iraq was behind 9/11. Lie. He did, repeatedly, and it's on tape. I watched Mr. Cheney's mouth, which has been described as something doglike that scares the postman. But it looks to me like Charlotte Rampling's long upper lip stretching to greatest effect in The Night Porter, a movie about sado-masochism.
Mr. Edwards didn't even bother to respond to Mr. Cheney's lies, having his own message to get out -- specifically, I am the most attractive politician the United States has seen since JFK (and I don't cheat on my wife or try to have foreign leaders assassinated in a manner that will lead to my own murder). Mr. Edwards knows, I think, that this election is about feelings, not facts. If it were about facts, Junior Bush wouldn't even have had a first term.
Why don't Republicans care about facts? After all, every twist of Richard Nixon's lies was studied by both Democrats and Republicans in 1974. It mattered then. Why not now?
British commentator Jonathan Raban, who now lives in the United States, says he has figured it out. The world can see that Iraq is a disaster headed for catastrophe; Republicans don't see this, but they don't care. Faith (or passion as Pierre Trudeau would have put it) beats out reason in that country. If John Kerry wins, Mr. Raban says, "it would be a surprising triumph of cold reason over hot religious mythology."
Another reason Mr. Edwards didn't chase the lies was that he was getting another coded message across. This man, Mr. Cheney (who calls himself a "public servant" but who is a Halliburton operative to the core), will make you poor, he'll deny your children education and your mother a heart operation, Mr. Edwards said. You think about that when you vote.
Mr. Edwards got across that the average American family is much worse off financially since president Bill Clinton departed. They feel it as much as know it; it is terrifying not to be rich in the USA.
What do you have when you have a nation that knows it's being fed lies and doesn't care? A nation ripe for fascism.
The man who said this first said it a very long time ago. That brilliant, difficult, crotchety Benjamin Franklin, aged 81, muttered it in 1787 in Philadelphia as the Constitution was being signed. "I agree to this Constitution with all its faults . . . because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered; and I believe further that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other" (italics mine).
I am indebted to Gore Vidal for Mr. Franklin's quote: This dire assessment of America's fate, quoted in Mr. Vidal's recent Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, is hard to find, having been chopped out of numerous history books. In the reversal of today's standard Hollywood happy ending, Mr. Franklin, in the 18th century, offered not shiny happy people but a "dark benediction" as American theorist James Morone puts it.
Among the nobilities Mr. Edwards casually strewed about the debate was this one: Mr. Cheney was going on about tort reform. He means he wants to make it impossible for ordinary people to sue corporations, his source of immense wealth. Mr. Edwards mentioned Valerie Lakey, a client of his to whom I have referred before. She is the five-year-old girl hideously damaged for life on a defective swimming pool drain cover. "The company knew of 12 other children who had either been killed or severely injured by the same problem. They hid it. They didn't tell anybody," Mr. Edwards said. "They could have fixed it with a two-cent screw."
Mr. Edwards's act of heroism was not to tell Americans what happens when a company can't be bothered with child safety. Their bowels get sucked out. He didn't want to upset the audience. Mr. Edwards was talking to parents: He didn't use blood words because he knew Valerie would be humiliated. Mr. Cheney was talking to corporate donors; he used bloodless words like "litigation."
Read Mr. Edwards's book Four Trials. It's lawyers such as Mr. Edwards who clear up the gore and grief left behind when a little girl sitting cross-legged in the baby pool says, "Help," and her mom says, "Honey, is this a for-real help or are you just playing?" and she says in a tiny voice, "No, this is for real."
Mr. Edwards gave me hope. This debate was for real.
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