Charles Dickens as Observer and Pundit

04/12/2007

Paul Munnis


IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

- Charles Dickens

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When Charles Dickens opened his historical novel A Tale of Two Cities, with the above passage he could easily have been speaking about America before and during the period of governance by G.W. Bush.

The optimistic view (the best of times) is one presented by the Bush Administration spin machine using propaganda and outright lies to control public support while the negatives are what we are observing in his actual attempt to govern our nation.

Starting with a stolen election during the new millennium year of 2000 and continuing to a foolish involvement in a war in Iraq having little to no justification, Mr. Bush and his colleague Dick Chaney have done a great deal of damage to America and our interests.

Now, like the Tribunals that followed the French Revolution an American hunt is underway in the form of Congressional oversight committees who are convening to hunt down those who robbed, pillaged, and destroyed the American Dream.

Like rats in a sewer those people of former great political power are running for cover. Gonzales, Rove, Libby, Rumsfeld, and others are on the lam, laying low, or doing time in the pokey. Evidence is being burned, destroyed, erased, and denied; even as those who formerly manipulate our system of government now find the laws they manipulated used against them.

It is a time now when a black man can run for President of the United States and be welcomed into the parlors of American homes as a visionary when only a few scant years ago people of color were being dragged behind automobiles by the Ku Klux Klan until they died from their wounds and disparaged as ignorant people by those who ran a government system of education biased to keep them that way.

Don Imus, who slandered and slurred black people on his syndicated TV show, now finds his career being flushed away. A former Republican Speaker of the House from Mississippi found himself unseated because of racism.

Thus has America created new opportunity and hope for its people while tearing down the icons of old behavioral patterns.

The Bush Administration and their supporters have stripped away legal protections, robbed us of our civil liberties, and now operate prison camps where the CIA kidnaps people off of the streets and then submits them to "rendition" -- thus torture and abuse become tools of governing a nation and managing our affairs of state.

America is changing as its demographics change and the mores of yesterday are not right for our times. Whoa to those who fail to learn the lesson of change -- they find that trouble comes to those failing to accommodate the new reality.

For much of American history it has been a time of accommodation, negotiation, and resolution while such behavior produced a system where America grew and prospered.

Then the GOP neo-cons arrived with their agenda of cultural, legal, and moral destruction. They attacked our U.S. Constitution, they rebelled against Supreme Court rulings, they stuffed our Courts, then they demanded an end to Separation of Church and State, and they passed laws to deny any accused of a proper trial. Instead they would lock up people without any legal rights and allowed no representation when they were accused by the Bush government of crime. They declared that to negotiate and compromise is to surrender and they vowed no surrender. The results have been really bad for them and for the rest of our nation.

Thus the elements of Fascism were introduced to America and people do not like it one bit. The GOP violated national laws of personal privacy and they spied upon millions of Americans in violation of our existing law. They did all this in the name of war powers grabbed off when an unjustified war against Iraq was undertaken.

Now the GOP neo-con house is falling and their reign is ending. They of course are resisting change and they still control the White House and our military through the Executive branch of government and are now deadlocked with Congress and creating government gridlock as a tactic to retain some semblance of their former control.

Our U.S. military is caught between two warring branches of government and are being rendered impotent by systemic destruction of men and equipment from war while the Congressional restraint of funds to fight that war is the weapon of choice used to force the White House to end the Iraqi war. Indeed there seems to be few alternatives for Congress to demand respect for their role in governing America and so they are going to the mat with the Bush Administration using military funding as the issue.

For citizens it is not a pretty thing to watch or read the news.

For voters it is not pleasant to admit we were duped by the Bush lies.

For the GOP they are watching their Party disintegrate and self-destruct. To save themselves they must sacrifice Mr Bush and relinquish control of the White House.

For Democrats we are watching the struggles between Congress and the Executive branch with clenched teeth and crossed fingers.

Ahead looms a new presidential election and people shudder at the candidates who are being offered. Few look like they have the credentials, experience, or connections needed to run America. Those who possess these attributes are the targets of the less capable candidates and they are suffering at the hands of an attack on reputation, personality, and policy.

And so we can agree with Charles Dickens...

“IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

God Bless America.