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“Beware
the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that
catch! Beware
the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!”
–Lewis Carroll
On February 28, 2007, Newt
Gingrich masterfully demonstrated how to misdirect your
attention by telling the truth. Mario Cuomo did the same
thing. Republican. Democrat. The Jubjub bird.
The Bandersnatch. I just watched the 'debate' on CSPAN yesterday. You can
also find it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/webcast-gingrich-cuomo-_b_42329.html
The two of them met at The
Cooper Union (search: Lincoln at Cooper Union) in what was
billed as a debate. The host was Tim Russert of NBC's 'Meet
the Press'. This was no debate. This was subterfuge disguised
as intelligent conversation. Don't stop reading yet.
It was quite an interesting
event, too. First up was Newt Gingrich who knocked me off my
chair by actually telling the truth about how government
functions, or rather doesn’t function, and he didn’t
exclude the Bush administration. One might be tempted to say
that he didn’t pull any punches. At least I was almost
tempted. He actually said some interesting things and talked
about how much we needed change in politics, in government, in
America. He talked about reforming Presidential campaigns,
nuclear proliferation, and how we could have a health care
system that works.
He talked about real change. He
was almost brilliant. He was also a deceiver. It was a cover
up. When he asked why we haven't had a national dialog about
nuclear weapons and how important it was… that was
calculated misdirection. Nuclear proliferation is dangerous to
be sure, but nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea or
Iran is not the mortal threat we face today. The threat we
face comes from within.
I couldn’t help wondering
what happened to the old Newt. Here we have a man who once
behaved like a mad shark who would say or do just about
anything to accumulate power at the expense of the truth and
basic decency. He as much as anyone was responsible for
convincing Republican officeholders to completely surrender
their sovereignty to their party leadership in order to
accumulate and consolidate power... to win elections... to
dominate government. And what was the result? The
disenfranchisement of The People.
Some of the time on stage he
actually sounded like a hero. In fact, his comments were so
thoughtful that Mario Cuomo almost fell over himself. When
asked who would make the most interesting Republican candidate
for President in 2008, Mario thought that Newt would be their
best choice. Maybe he would be. While he thought Clinton would
be the most likely standard bearer for the Democrats, the way
I heard it, Mario honestly couldn’t think of any Democrat
who was really qualified to be president. I can't either.
Mario was no slouch with his
ideas either. He was not quite as on target as Newt was, in my
view, but he did say some interesting things. He criticized
the Democrats, for example, for being unwilling to discuss
anything of real importance. Democrats, he said, have an
unwritten rule that you shouldn’t talk about anything
controversial during a campaign. The idea being, that the most
important thing to remember in order to get elected... is not
to rock the boat. The idea being, that if you don’t get
elected you will never get to do the things you really want to
do. The idea being, that once you do get elected, then you can
do the important work you always had in mind.
Well, Mario rightly pointed out
that this is just the strategy of cowards and fools. If you
don’t raise the issues when you’re running for office, the
public won’t be prepared for them once you are elected, so
you won’t be able to get them done once you are in office
anyway.
So what was so deceptive about
all of this? It sounded like a pretty enlightening
conversation to most listeners I’m sure? It sounded that way
to me at first. I enjoyed it so much I was almost willing to
believe my ears.
It took me awhile but I finally
figured out what could possibly inspire Newt to actually tell
the truth about how bad government and this administration is:
by telling the audience the truth about bureaucratic and
governmental dysfunction and offering a few good suggestions
about how to make things work better, he was able to gain the
trust of his audience. But I don't think his intention was in
any way altruistic. He used the truth to avoid talking about a
much greater truth. He used the truth to avoid talking about
what is really important: this administration and this
Congress are more than incompetent... they're a malignancy on
our republic.
Newt was right when he said he
was afraid for his grandchildren; that they were in more
danger now than he was when he was a child. They are. And he
is part of the reason they are. Why? Partly because of how he
conducted himself when he was in office and partly because he
is still covering up the real danger we face even now as we
enter the last turn in the bend just before we head over the
precipice.
Our Constitutional republic is
being replaced by a fascist regime right before our eyes. It
threatens to end the great American experiment itself. These
people are usurping our freedoms, leaving every honest
American bereft of the legacy we promised our children. What
we are facing here is treason.
http://www.gpln.com/howiseeit.htm
We do need to improve
government, but first we need to preserve the rule of law; we
need to protect and preserve the Constitution. What we
have is not incompetence, but systemic corruption. If you
don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s time for you to wake up
now. You've got some catching up to do.
“What
has happened to basic honor and decency? Torture?
Rendition? Indefinite detentions? The right to
be legitimately represented by an attorney? Fraudulent
elections? Depleted Uranium? Cluster bombs in
populated areas? Dead citizens floating in the street? No-bid
contracts? Secrecy? Signing statements?
Criminal incompetence and negligence?”
http://www.gpln.com/acceptingtreason.htm
http://www.gpln.com/citizen.htm
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