Torture, Nixon, Obama
For many, Watergate is just a word, but it's relevant now as we consider what to do with Americans who tortured. Let's hope they don't get off as lightly as Wall Street's CEOs.
Carol Roegg
I recently participated in a panel on media and politics keying off the play, Frost/Nixon, which will be opening at the Paramount Theatre May 6 with Stacy Keach in the Tricky Dick role. The panel took place at the downtown library's Microsoft Auditorium and before it started excerpts from the actual 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews played overhead, a chance to see Big Brother Nixon's famous sweat and five o-clock shadow on the big screen.
It's hard now to believe that 35 years ago, the nation was riveted by this man and his scandal. One of the panel members, University of Washington political science professor Mark A. Smith, said that to most of his students, Watergate is just a word. Yes, it was another time. Impeachment was still a scary concept untested for a century. Shame was still possible in America. A nation was challenged to prove that our democracy could work through its most difficult political challenge: to uproot corruption at the highest levels of power.
The power of the play-turned-to-film Frost/Nixon is that it dramatizes and humanizes Richard Nixon without letting him off the hook. To a great extent, democracy won: The House of Representatives voted to impeach Nixon, who resigned office in disgrace. That showed that we could navigate difficult times, that our democracy was resilient, that it could be reformed, that we could transition peacefully to new leadership, even in the middle of a war (Vietnam).
Nixon was not hung by his boot heals, but pardoned and self-exiled to California where he could begin his self-rehabilitation process (writing endless books on foreign policy, talking with David Frost). He partially succeeded: The villain is now a tragic character of Shakespearian dimensions: complex, wounded, unhinged, brilliant, at times sympathetic. In Frost/Nixon the movie, Frank Langella's Academy Award-nominated performance reveals the easily reviled Nixon as a person, not just the "I am not a crook" (shake jowls here) of stand-up comics, nor the purely evil caricature of his most devoted enemies on the left. He is redeemed in history as human.
Watergate was a catalyst for a host of changes and reforms, and its slow resolution revealed flaws and gave rise to a wave of solutions. Open government, lobby reforms, and campaign finance laws, a new generation who came to Washington to clean and open it up, a reinvigorated press. Hard to remember in this time of dying daily newspapers and media meltdown, but during the post-Watergate years, journalism became the hot new profession for young people. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were rock stars. Students flocked to work at their college papers and young scribes eyed every provost as a target, the next Nixon.
Some of the changes were not all positive: The media did get too big for its britches after Watergate, treating every public official as covering-up scandal, yet at the same time inflating its own righteous sense of importance to the point of arrogance. The press reveled in being a check on power by becoming a power player itself, ingratiating itself with the establishment. And the post-Watergate message that Washington, DC was no longer welcoming to the merely power-hungry had an unanticipated result. In the early 1980s, I had lunch with a top Northwest lobbyist in DC who told me that ambitious young professionals had decided after Watergate that there was no future in Washington. All the new youthful energy was flowing to Wall Street. We now know how that turned out.
Not all the business-types wound up there. George W. Bush got an MBA and decided to run the country like a CEO. He brought Wall Street's values and American corporate-style management to the White House. James Hoopes in his book, Hail to the CEO, pointed out the hazards of this, an Enron-style of management running the country. We have a leadership that believes in its own virtue and thus ignores (or makes its own) reality, that substitutes management skills for cronyism and loyalty (that's what made Brownie a heckuva guy). The CEO style is one that conflates virtue and wealth, a kind of prosperity gospel masked as moral leadership when, in fact, it is the opposite.
The resulting Bush era fiascos have produced crises far beyond what Richard Nixon manufactured: a global economic crisis, widespread electronic surveillance, a country that abandoned its real virtues to torture its enemies in the name of virtue but in the tradition of our worst enemies — Communist totalitarians and the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.
The crooks have had a field day. We live in a country where there is no shame and wrong-doing is rewarded. The old saying, "I don't care what you say about me just spell my name right" could now be "It doesn't matter what I did, just check out my Facebook page and my new show on Fox." Bad publicity merely builds one's brand. Blago gets a reality series, Karl Rove, Dick Morris, and Bill Bennett are cable TV pundits, Elliott Spitzer worms his way back into the public eye.
The CEO style offers major benefits to miscreants. One is further insulation from failure. Wall Street's bad actors are still on track to get their bonuses and many of the most irresponsible received taxpayer money to bail them out of trouble. They also get golden parachutes and, perhaps most precious of all, protection from ever being held responsible. The buck stops nowhere: the pennies of responsibility are scattered in 100 different directions. Is the CEO to blame for anything? No, it was the system, the guys in accounting, the rogues in the derivatives department, the regulators, the people who took out loans they couldn't afford....
This is now playing out in the torture memos release too. President Obama and Congress are loath to wade into into investigations and prosecutions over torture. Who can blame them? They have multiple wars and crises on their to-do list. It'd be nice if it never happened, if it would all go away. But remember: We survived and recovered Nixon's downfall even during a war and an energy crisis.
The reluctant should take heart from the Watergate example — as messy, flawed and yes political, as it was. When America was on the brink of falling apart, the exposure of corruption and the fixing of blame with investigations, hearings, and prosecutions, even pardons and paroles, renewed our democracy. It forced us to look at its reality. Tens of millions of people watched the live televised Watergate hearings and later the Frost/Nixon interviews because they were captured by the drama of how the story of democracy itself would turn out. It is no sure thing. As Ben Franklin said, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Democracy is strengthened by the public airing of shameful events, not the willful forgetting, the "walking on" of people who don't want to think about the unpleasantness. This is more than a time to "reflect," as Obama has said. In our democracy, a sense of justice must prevail, and if we let the torturers walk, if we simply write it all off to bad memos, bad legal advice, folks following orders, and the pressures of war, we'll be ignoring a major wound. If a house divided cannot stand, neither can one burdened by dry rot.
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Comments:
Posted Wed, May 6, 8:30 a.m. Inappropriate
"A republic, if you can keep it."
Shortly after 9/11 I was at a gathering with some friends and among them, I think it was generally believed that similar attacks would occur several times a year on into the future. I certainly thought so. How could you stop determined men who could freely buy gasoline, rent cars and trucks, and even, with a little chicanery, acquire bomb material? and who would then willingly give up their own lives to kill the Americans around them. Could this country survive multiple 9/11s? well, probably so but almost surely with a less impulsively free and mobile way of life. There are other ways to lose this republic than (what some see as) an overzealous defense.
If waterboarding did, as some argue, or even if it offered reasonable hope of preventing or delaying more 9/11s then I think it was the correct decision to go ahead and do it. If it delayed or prevented even one more 9/11 it was the best of two ugly choices.
Was anyone in the Roosevelt administration or in the judiciary of that time ever prosecuted for the internment of Americans of Japanese decent? has anyone seriously proposed it? clearly it was a bad decision but it has been recognized as what it was, misguided but understandable fear for our country.
Posted Wed, May 6, 8:38 a.m. Inappropriate
To bring those who had nothing but torture on their mind after they fell asleep at the wheel without an inkling of historical consequences that every empire [every huge crime maker] will suffer would mean not just a tribunal for Bush and Cheney [and the hangman's noose at Nuremberg] but an assessment of the imperialist impulse and a facing of all the major crimes that the empire has committed since WW II. That is not about to happen under an Obama Presidency which is far more about continuity than change albeit with a nice smile better coloring and a more soothing rhetoric. This is the Goldmann Sachs presidency and it is as unlikely to bring the deregulated to heel as it is to bring the criminals to trial, to do so would be for it to cut off the feet on which it stands; there will be a few diversionary minor reforms, such as closing a few tax loop holes and there will be those major food fights over entirely minor matters; while the empire seeks to shore up its landlords in Pakistan.
Posted Wed, May 6, 9:11 a.m. Inappropriate
In the 35 years since Watergate it now looks like child's play. Not only is corruption a mandate to obtain cushy federal government positions (look at most of Obama's nominees), but it is elevated to a virtue. Worse, our society has devolved from a civilized, moral people to a people who are appalled that we make our enemies a little uncomfortable but glorify the barbaric practice of tearing apart the bodies of millions upon millions of the unborn, or throw them in the garbage bin as so much trash if they happen to survive their tearing apart, or stab their skulls with scissors to kill them if they happen to be almost ready to be born. Talk about torture. It's not torture to kill the only truly innocent by the millions but is torture to lock up a fanatical killer with a couple of caterpillars. Unbelievable!
Posted Wed, May 6, 9:52 a.m. Inappropriate
Excellent writing. Some of the very best I've read. I wonder about the conclusion. The Greater of societies seem to be focused on the future not the past. Would it make our democracy better to prosecute our constitution's dead authors for owning slaves or put FDR legacy on trial for incarcerating the Japanese during the 2nd. world war? Bring the crooks to shame not to trial. We have more important things to accomplish.
Posted Wed, May 6, 10:11 a.m. Inappropriate
Let's not forget the public hysteria, fanned on by the press, that occurred in the months following 9/11. Public officials were loathe to imagine what commissions of inquiry they would be brought before if such an attack happened again "on their watch." In such a climate, Orwellian words like "homeland" entered the lexicon, and we even had Oracle founder Larry Ellison offering to set up a national ID card and internal passport system as his "patriotic" contribution to the national security state. We've learned a lot of lessons since those years. One of the main ones is that the type of excesses Americans have historically spoken pedantically of when they occur in "lesser" nations can happen here, and some did. And probably will again. The real danger is not the people who proposed using these methods as much as it is a government that is so large, powerful, intrusive and disconnected from reality that European concepts like "homeland" take precedence over the American concept of Constitutional rule of law. George Bush grew government power and influence at an alarming rate, and Barack Obama is doing nothing but increasing that growth. The fault is not so much with Bush as with the spirit of a nation that would let this governmental growth take place. Bush is gone, yet the monster created by Franklin Roosevelt, and nurtured by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, continues to grow. Rather than find a few scapegoats from the previous administration to parade about in show trials, let's examine the national security state itself. Let's examine how we've let government become the leviathan it is. Let's examine how we can pare government back to its core competencies. Let's start with the whole odious concept of a "homeland" and how we can return to a nation of Constitutionally limited government, and in doing so return to our place as a moral compass for the world.
Posted Wed, May 6, 9:52 p.m. Inappropriate
Johnson, Nixon,Kissinger,and MacNamara and the American people murdered millions of innocent Vietnamese, Cambodian, and American human beings. Yes, murdered them. For no good reason. Hollywood movies, or plays in Seattle, or panels of pundits, can never "redeem" that--the evil was second only to the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. This is not about American angst and hand-wringing over our internal politics, but about an atrocity equivalent to what the Turks did to the Armenians after WWI. To treat this horror as a "cultural/media" event to be analyzed with parsed words of theatrical criticism, and as a surrogate attack on Bush/Cheney, is an atrocity. The world is not about us and our celebrities, good or bad.
Posted Thu, May 7, 6:41 a.m. Inappropriate
the "public hysteria" mentioned by dbrenaman was manufactured by the regime and the new "homeland security department", not the public as suggested...we were told to duct tape windows, narc out our neighbors, and saddam had WMD's massed on kuwait's border and were mobile and ready along with chemical weapons we sold him during the 80's...i despise the word patriotic but the true patriots at the time, ones who spoke truths and looked at reality in a nonpolitical way, like general shinsheski, were swept under a rug, ignored, or worse...sadder yet were how few their actually were. how many congressmen and woman said they were duped by the intellegence presented to them by our regime? i sure wasn't...the patriotic thing for those elected officials dumbed down enuff to be duped by someone of bush/cheney's intellect and worldview should have simply done the "patriotic" thing and resigned...and that includes General colin powell who instead gave the worst, most infamous speech at the U.N. i was ever priveleged and horrified to see...and that includes old black and white footage of che guevarra addresses the body - at least he had the facts right
Posted Thu, May 7, 9:32 a.m. Inappropriate
The public hysteria, fanned in large part by the press, enabled the policies that the Bush government pursued, and predated the establishment of the Department of "Homeland" Security by many months. As may be recalled, the Bush Administration was criticized in those days for doing too little. "Get on with your lives and go shopping" was the mantra of the day. Many bemoaned the perception that Bush was not asking for "sacrifice." But the American people have sacrificed a lot, especially privacy and money. A new president is now at the controls of the monster, but the monster survives. Whether you love or loathe the man at the helm, the monster is still a threat to all of us. I'd rather make the monster less powerful than hope that a more munificent person will emerge to control it.
Posted Thu, May 7, 12:31 p.m. Inappropriate
mine is a world view, not an american view - especially one "fanned in large part by the press"...we live in an age of dinosaurs. all around us social, economic, and political behemoths lumber thru destroyed environments, casting life threating shadows over the entire planet. there is a gigantic struggle taking place in communities as capatilst-rex and state-a-saraus struggle to fill their bellies with more resources and power while fending off the newly savage pterror-dactyls...the battle between these giants is terrible and rages on, but i cannot and will not last. Evolution is against these doomed tyrants...already there sun is dimming and the bright eyes of others gleam in the darkness, demanding something else...not all of these eyes are much different from the struggling reptilian overlords (or dbrenemans blaming all at the helm and just waiting and hoping for a "monster less powerful")...they have inspired smaller dinasaurs waiting their turn for dominion. these smaller ones are the fossilized ideologies of the left. despite alluring promises, they only offer a cuddlier version of the current system, and in the end are no more liberating than the large masters, such as the "socialist" governments of western europe. their talons maybe smaller and their teeth not as sharp, but their appetites and methods are the same as their larger kin. they long for mass: the eternal dream of the child to be mass-ive. they believe if they can reach enuff mass, thru parties, unions, organizations, or movements, then they can challenge the master dinasaurs and tear power away from them
in the cool shadows of the nite, in treetops of forgotten forestas, and in the streets of devasted cities there are still other eyes. quick eyes and slender bodies fed on hope, eyes that gleam with the possibility of pure independence. these small creatures live in the periphery, in the footsteps and shadows of the dinasaurs who want to consume them and create "one big dinasaur" to usurp all others. these warm blooded creatured are many and varied, living on the abundance of the world that the dinasaurs, in their arrogance, trample over. they scheme together and dance while the exhausted dinasaurs sleep. they build, create, find new ways to live and rediscover forgotten ones, confident that the tyranny will end.
we know this draconian reign will not last forever. even the dinasaurs know their age must end, the meteor will surely hit. whether by the curious warm bloodied ones or by some unknown catastrophe, the bad days of gargantuan, reptilian authority will end. the drab uniform of armored scales will be replaced with a costume of feathers, fur, and supple skin of a million hues...this is ANARCHY in the age of dinasaurs!
Posted Thu, May 7, 3:50 p.m. Inappropriate
bkochis, If I remember correctly, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military assassinated thousands of village officials and killed thousands upon thousands of peasants. At least the vast majority of those the Americans killed were combatants. While I'll grant you that Johnson, McNamara, Nixon and Kissinger were terrible wartime leaders, however, you seem to have a very stilted view of the American war in Vietnam.
kk,
Those involved were not "crooks." In fact, I'd call them patriots. Through his grandstanding second guessing on the potential criminality of those involved in writing legal opinions and carrying out the "torture," Pres. Obama has succeeded in the total demotivation of any and all Americans involved in efforts to thwart terrorist acts here and abroad. I hope we do not pay a price for this down the road.
Posted Thu, May 7, 4:01 p.m. Inappropriate
Ballardinc - forgive me, but I have absolutely no idea what you are saying with all of those dinosaur (or is it "dinasaur"?), talons and forestas references.
Bkochis - I suggest you research the definition of "murder" before throwing it so loosely around. To suggest as you did that the individuals are guilty of murder is irresponsible at best, and likely libelous.
Mr Berger - you state "We have a leadership that believes in its own virtue and thus ignores (or makes its own) reality." That is present tense, so I assume that you are referring to the Obama administration (though in context is unclear). I agree with the statement insofar as it applies to the Obama administration, particularly after taking credit today for these "massive" proposed budget cuts that amount to less than 0.5% of the budget. That certainly ignores reality.
Posted Thu, May 7, 9:08 p.m. Inappropriate
PJS if you can't connect the dots or understand the metaphors i am sorry for your illiteracy level...you dish out diss on 3 posters and offer absolute no input of any intellectual insight or value. I suggest you get off your high horse and offer some substance - in the present tense and in the 1st person preferably but 3rd person will do if that is all you can offer. my suggestions is quit reading the new york times and wall street journal and read some creative writing and try your hardest to think outside the box in order to understand or interpret someone elses view that doesn't come from the obvious Mcmansion/gated community box you live and think in...please don't be part of teh problem but part of the solutiuon...think and write for yourself and offer some ideas - not just step by step analyzing everyone elses view in your narrow minded/vindictive/totally sign of the political times view...you obviously watcxh too much meet the press and lou dobbs!
Posted Fri, May 8, 6:25 a.m. Inappropriate
PJS, i agree with bkochis on the charge of murder on kissinger and mcnamara...and if u or they want to sue me for libel i relish my day in court! thats will be an easy victory for democracy ! why do you think kissinger can't even travel to europe and most foreign countries? Because of the civilians and non-combatants killed by covert and overt operations he, as secretary of state, (not the president or vice president)advised and orderd- not to mention the bombing targets he picked in cambodia during the vietnam "conflict"..who the hell is he to have such power as to drop bombs on peasant village in a country not engaged in his "conflict" against communism? In fact a judge in Spain HAS charged Kissinger for the murder of a spain citizen that pinochet (thru the military and political training of the US and especially Kissinger and the Milton Friedman crowd of "shock economics")tortured and dumped into the Rio Plata. I think you are irresponsible throwing the term "libelous" in such a frivolous and somewhat intimidating/threating way when the fact is, johnson and nixon were covered legallly if not morally for their actions, Mcnamara and kissinger did murder and have been charged in some more civilized countries for their crimes. Sorry, stating this is not libel and the days of the dick cheney, tom delay tactics you use on bkochis are over! charge me with libel on the fact i call kissinger a murderer! hah! You watch way too much network television or CNN.
Posted Fri, May 8, 8:17 a.m. Inappropriate
Ballardinc - thanks for your clarifying responses. I think you've made my point.
Two questions - what are "forestas" and are they associated somehow with the talons?
Posted Fri, May 8, 10:05 a.m. Inappropriate
forestas was a typo if you couldn't deduce i meant forest...and what is your point you think you made? clarify please? that you still offer no input to the intellectual discussion, just edit peoples postings? thanks for being my editor cus i don't have the time to find the "sic's" and typos of others. So if you still want to charge me with libel for calling Kissinger a murderer i will fwd you me and my lawyers e-mails and phone numbers. Let's do it in federal court in the U.S. as opposed to an international tribunal because that would be my wet dream! and for you to post " to suggest as you did that individuals are guilty of murder is irresponsible at best, and likely libelous", tells me you don't know neither world history or US history because bkochiss was right on the mark and you are on the wrong side of history except that history is written by the victors. You are very "patriotic" for calling peoples written words "irresponsible", in a country with the right of free speech no less, and would have been great working for the past regime. will you be burning books next - ones that reference dinasaurs and talons?
Posted Fri, May 8, 10:32 a.m. Inappropriate
My sole point is that your posts are incomprehensible. They are riddled with typos, misspellings and poor grammar. Even if one can look past all that, they use tortured metaphors and exhibit no understanding of the real world or its history.
Just one example - one is not "charged" with libel in the U.S. Libel is not a crime. It is a tort, and only the person libeled (Sec Kissinger, in this example) would have standing to bring a claim. There is a first amendment right to free speech, but the first amendment only limits government interference with that right.
Each post of yours seems to be less comprehensible than the prior posts. Perhaps a remedial writing course is in order.
I do find this exchange rather humorous, and for that I thank you.
Posted Fri, May 8, 1:16 p.m. Inappropriate
yes very humourous indeed...thanx for the grammar lessons though...i write like kerouac - no editing and 1st thought best thought...i didn't know this blog required the nuances of english 101...i don't lecture me on tort law and especially the 10 amendments.
Posted Fri, May 8, 1:35 p.m. Inappropriate
Yours in paleology,
Posted Fri, May 8, 4:22 p.m. Inappropriate
of what use is law or the constitution to an anarchist? to point out the absurdity of our so called democratic society and use of force to install "multi ethnic democracies" thru out the world. (for example we established a constitution and laws in Iraq, did we not? by a candidate who campaigned vigorously against "nation building" - then went on the biggest, most expensive, most deadly, nation building project in human history)...that kind of democratic civilized society and rule makes my vision of anarchy seem like Eden!... and anarchy doesn't mean lawless-ness...to me it is having control over my happiness and quality of life in my hands as opposed to you, someone else, a head of state, or some neocon imperialist from across the ocean or down in south america somewhere...it's community; community of like minded individuals coming together and living in harmony how they see fit,not how corporate amerika see's how we should be of optimal use to meet their vision statement and stock holder goals.. whether it be living in caves and hunting with bows and arrows or living in half vacant condos in belltown and sipping lattes and reading the times everyday..the fact that you, and mostly you, art responsible for your happiness and way of life, not anyone else...that's what anarchy means to me.
Posted Fri, May 8, 5:13 p.m. Inappropriate
PJS, our exchanges are humorous but spend 3 years as a peace corps volunteer in a 3rd world country like i did before telling me i have "no understanding of the real world and it's history"...you might have read some books, but no more than i easily,... i suggest you go out and see the real world in it's real reality, not from your study den or living room couch watching the travel channel or CNN international or reading the "week in review" every Sunday. go see for yourself, do for yourself, understand thru yourself, not thru the mediums you so obviously currently use. do you even have a passport? that would answer alot of questions i have about your opinions on world history and the statements you make about other bloggers world view. The fact you find me incoherent simply means my message is not for you and i don't find that offensive or disappointing in the least...you are entitled to your view as much as i am to mine and in the end who knows who will be the real agents of change in this beautiful world and great country? the status quo or the free thinkers unencumbered by the trivialities of tort law, the legal interpretation of the 10 amendments, and proper grammer while scheming and dreaming of a better world? I wish you nothing but love and happiness and keep the pot stirring because a healthy exchange of ideas is what this country has been lacking and desperately needs.
Posted Fri, May 8, 7:07 p.m. Inappropriate
I have two passports --- dual citizen. Thanks for asking.
Posted Sat, May 9, 12:02 p.m. Inappropriate
yeah? what other country are you a citizen of? and do you speak the native tongue?..i am calling you out if you don't comprehend this post as you have made it clear you can't in my others. i expect an answer...don't BS me either cus i will sniff you out... i have residency in 3 countries...and did you marry into that dual passport? Because your postings leave a trail of evident americano-imperial-elitist -greater than though attitude...did you add "de la (name the city)" to your last name too? probably canadien eh?
my passports green bro, so i don't need visas or dual identities or egos- it's an American passport but diplomatic, granting access to every and all countries, even the ones are elected leaders tell me is illegal to visit (which i find incomprehensible as a human inhabitant living on planet earth) so where are you a dual citizen?.. how much time have you spent there?... do you vote there?...or do you just vacation there? again, if you don't understand me i am calling you out, seeing how sincere you are in your role as a "dual citizen" of planet earth...i for one am a citizen of every country on planet pangea, and don't need no paperwork or "dual citizen" or multiple passports to validate these credentials, but you obviously feel the need to...no fault there americano!
Posted Sat, May 9, 4:35 p.m. Inappropriate
Ireland. I speak one of the two official languages.
If you truly have a US diplomatic passport, I fear for the US. When did the foreign service exam stop requiring foreign service officers to be able to write complete English sentences?
Both my valet and my driver compose in English better than you, and English is a second language for both of them.
Posted Sat, May 9, 6:42 p.m. Inappropriate
I, too, fear for the future of American dilpomacy. But I somehow have to keep reading this drivel. I guess it's the same instinct that makes people slow down to gape at a traffic accident.
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