The Winds of Change

04/14/2007

Paul Munnis


The thing about publicly trying Mr. Bush in the Court of Public Opinion is that it can be done so darn methodically.

Cabinet members who did willful damage to our American institutions can be publicly exposed.

Aides who were complicit can be exposed while those who operated illegally can be tried.

Government people who profiteered from war can be convicted.

Power brokers and Strategists who lied can be unseated and driven far away from Government.

Contractors who profiteered can be hunted down and driven out of business.

With each layer of complicity that is exposed then the American public comes to understand the full degree to which we were flimflammed.

In the last chapter Chaney and Bush might face the people of America. We say "might" because it's a matter of timing. There comes a point at which one must move ahead and not linger too much over the past.

For many people there would be satisfaction and closure.

For some there would be a sense of guilt arising from complicity.

Once all the dirt is all out on the table then generations will park the GOP Party into a dusty corner for decades to come.

In the meantime a new Party will arise to replace them and to contest the Democratic Party.

What will the new Party be like? Who will lead it? What will their platform be?

I don’t know the answers. But they will arise just as surely as the sun rises each day. Power hates a vacuum and so people who see things differently than Democrats and who want a share of power will organize to get it. Watching them form will be interesting and maybe a little alarming since demand will be high for change after the Bush experience. It is not likely that the American people will admit former neo-cons to the ranks of the new Party -- they will become as political outcasts and be ostracized.

After the French Revolution the people of Paris were shown the use of the guillotine on political prisoners who had offended their nation and oppressed their people. The American equivalent is watching TV prosecution of miscreants. It is the same -- entertainment for the abused providing a sense of rough justice and closure.

Democrats will likely have a hard time with the new Party that rises up since it will be a Populist movement. If we don’t want to become victims of rough justice then we had best govern in the most honest and enlightened manner that we know. If we do that then it will be a quarrel over ideas. Democrats can hold their own in that arena just fine.