FORGIVE MY CYNICISM

FORGIVE MY CYNICISM

By Peter Fredson

November 19, 2005

I was not always cynical of American politics, civics, and public service. Indeed, I thought highly of “American Values” such as patriotism, honor, honesty, keep one’s sworn word, doing one’s duty to country, and serving honorably. Although I knew that the words “Liberty” and “Democracy” had multiple meanings for philosophers and linguists, to me they were fairly straight-forward. Indeed they were master symbols of Americanism itself.

It was perhaps Watergate that broke the dam and let cynicism flow. Although I knew that Presidents were human and capable of lying, I did not appreciate the depth and viciousness of inventive felony until Nixon came along. With George W. Bush the dam not only broke wide open but the entire levee system collapsed. Please forgive me for even suspecting that our President is a habitual liar, a dangerous religious devotee, and in the pocket of lobbyists, fundamentalists, and neoconservative clowns that want to rule the world.

Yesterday I watched a Senate Investigation of oil executives, and heard a request that sworn testimony was needed. Then I heard the Chairman bellow a denial to all requests that executives had to take an oath before testimony. Then I saw all of the jowls of the fat executives shake, full of confidence in their power, as they all testified that the huge increase in profits, to the amount of 24 BILLION dollars, was richly deserved. In that moment I had a flashback to the tobacco executives, in a very similar surrounding, who swore to a senatorial investigative committee, that they didn’t know nicotine was addictive.

In that moment, I suspected that the Chairman’s usefulness to his country was terminated. His loyalty to party, cash and support seemed to overwhelm any sense of honor or duty that may have brought him into politics. Forgive me for this ignoble thought.

Please forgive me for suspecting that lobbyist bribery, in whatever form it was offered, did its intended purpose. Please forgive me for thinking, despite all the politician’s denials, that quid pro quo is the rule nowadays.

Yes, I cynically think that huge contributions are really investments in political capitalism and that when a good politician gets bought, he stays bought. Giving a couple of bucks to elect a mayor or a hundred to elect a President may be appropriate but when you eat a plate of cold chicken and pay a thousand dollars, or ten thousand dollars, or a hundred thousand dollars, then you are buying a large slice of political pie too, even if you can also spend the night in the White House and get a Christmas Card from the Commander-in-Chief. Please forgive me for these venal thoughts.

Please forgive me for imagining that the Republican Party is a kind of extension of the Oval Office, an adjunct sycophant at the bidding of the Chief Executive, their Master’s Voice. And forgive me for imagining that the Oval Office has also become an extension of some sort of collective church run by rabble-rousing televangelists who simply want to merge their religious dogma with our legal system into a theocracy by the grace of Saint George.

Forgive me for thinking that Bush’s executive privilege, making us a “faith-based” nation, is a reward to fundamentalists for vast amounts of cash and support, as well as upholding Bush’s private beliefs at the expense of all other beliefs.

Then too please forgive me for imagining that George, Dick, Condi, Karl, Donald and a hundred others are involved in some sort of agreement, call it a neocon conspiracy, in which they dominate the world by a strategy calling for bullying, strutting, menacing, preemption, misinformation, deceit, and habitual lies.

They have successfully suckered the entire nation into going to war against a helpless smaller nation by the religious argument that its leader was EVIL and therefore it was legitimate to cause Regime Change. Or, for the more secular Americans, that terror was imminently coming to the nation via mushroom clouds, pilotless planes, and very long range missiles with anthrax or poison gas.

Please forgive me for thinking they did it for gaining power, for grabbing the oil of a nation and giving it to their cronies for exploitation, for seizing land from that nation for permanent huge military bases and a huge embassy. And forgive me for thinking that they planned to bully and threaten and send spies to destabilize, until they found a pretext to invade Syria and Iran.

Forgive me for thinking that little Condi Rice, the Black Angel of Death, is on that precise mission, mouthing the words “democracy” and “freedom” until they have become unrecognizable given that it is difficult to achieve peace through stimulating war and difficult to reconcile “sovereignty” with an occupying army perpetually holding loaded weapons and killing civilians at every corner. I think this has added to my cynical sensibility.

Forgive me for thinking that the Republicans and fundamentalists were being hypocritical for their actions during Terri Schiavo’s demise when a politician surgeon was able to diagnose her condition by long distance and his followers suggested that all she needed to revive and recover full health was to give her a drink of water. And to make it worse the President and his brother were willing to pass special legislation because of their concern over the “culture of life.”

That’s not what aroused my great cynicism though. It is the fact that they were willing to suspend national life for their religious ideas to benefit one person while sending several thousand soldiers to their death in order to get oil and land and power. I suspect that human life is of little concern to them when great profits are to be had. Forgive my crude thought.

Their great concern for life does not seem to extend to the death of soldiers other than that they don’t want to attend their funerals, or let people take photographs of coffins. I suspect it is not sensitivity but embarrassment, and fear of losing support and cash when people realize that their incompetence and neocon belief has put our democracy in danger.

I suspect it is not wanting to suspend the practices of torture and abuse that worries Republicans and the Presidential Cabinet, but the fear of impeachment by disclosure of their stupidity that really worries them. But please forgive me for this ignoble thought.

I liked it when Harry Truman had a plaque on this desk saying “The Buck Stops Here.” I worry that President Bush is saying: “What Buck? I don’t see any Buck. There’s no Buck.” I worry about his incessant denials, about his absolute disregard for taking any responsibility for his actions, for his playing guitar when people were drowning in New Orleans.

My cynicism lead me to believe he is incompetent, petulant, irascible, irresponsible, mentally unbalanced by some sort of dry drunk effect and that he covers it up by strutting, swaggers, smiling broadly, patting people on the back and using charm and personality to overcome his grave leadership defects. Please forgive me for those ugly thoughts.

When I look at the people he has appointed to high office my cynicism grows by leaps and bounds. Who but Bush would dream of giving Bolton the Ambassadorship to the United Nations. I thought Bolton wanted to destroy the institution, right? Who but Bush would have put Ashcroft in as his attorney who has fascist ideas about civil rights.

Who but Bush would have chosen attorneys who advise him that he can flout international and constitutional law because he is War President? Who but Bush would have put a person knowledgeable about show horses in charge of disaster programs in which thousands of lives would rest in his hands?

Who but Bush would have put one of the most sanguinary people in the defense department, who cheerfully has murdered thousands of Iraqi civilians and intends to keep doing it because it’s “right?”

I could keep on with this thread indefinitely. I have saved thousands of files in which I seem to document the reasons behind my cynicism. I would like to be forgiven if my zeal exceeds my grasp of actuality.