Benjamin Franklin once said that "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." That was the 1700s, and I suppose an example would have been marching n bright red uniforms in a straight line in broad daylight and not expecting to get massacred. Or maybe it's just stupidity?Anyway, today we have our own answer to the "Redcoats" in Richard "Dick" Cheney. On Sundsy, Cheney told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that if he had to do it all over again, knowing then what he knows now - no WMD, no ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda, no threat from Iraq whatsoever - "we'd do exactly the same thing." Insanity? As Richard Cohen writes:
Talleyrand said of the Bourbons that they forgot nothing and learned nothing. It will be said of Cheney that he forgot everything and learned nothing.
So maybe it's not "insanity," by Ben Franklin's definition, "just" an extreme degree of arrogance, an unwillingness to process and learn from new data as it streams in, and a complete failure to consider the possiblity that the post-9/11 strategy followed by this Administration wasn't optimal. In fact, as most of us in the "reality-based world" know, it was disatrous, except for Al Qaeda and Iran, both of which are thriving. Heckuva job.
Meanwhile, E.J. Dionne points out that Dick Cheney seems "terribly impatient with democracy," and suggests that Deadeye Dick might try a different system, perhaps "the kind in which those in charge can protect national security by telling everyone what not to say and what not to think." The problem, as E.J. Dionne points out, is this:
If Cheney doesn't like "the kind of debate that we've had in the United States," is there any other "kind," short of a lock-step endorsement of all of Bush's choices, he'd endorse?
A lock-step endorsement of the Bush Administration? Now, THAT would be crazy. Just as it would be crazy for Republicans to fall in lock-step behind Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, or any other Democratic President. And don't worry, they won't. Nor should they, because - NEWS FLASH! - this is a Democracy! Or at least the Founding Fathers wanted it to be, a system based on checks and balances, where no single power center gains disproportionate or dangerous levels of power.
Yet, this is apparently what Dick Cheney would prefer - disproportionate, dangerous power in which the opposition is muzzled and all hail our great leaders, Bush and Cheney!
Well, if that's not un-American, I don't know what is. And if that's not very close to insane, by Ben Franklin's classic definition, then Franklin - possibly the most brilliant and wise man America has ever produced - didn't know what the heck he was talking about. Personally, I'd trust Ben Franklin over Dick Cheney any day.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
Thanks for the great post, Lowell.
I have been trying for some time to recall the cartoon villan he reminds me of...
got it on Sunday: The Penguin. Give him a top hat and a cigar and there he is!
Welcome to America, Mr. Vice-President. We've been doing it this way for over 200 years. What exactly is so special about you and your boss that makes you too good for the democracy practiced by all the other presidents and leaders of our great country?
No kidding, I am alarmed by the near hysterical hyperbole and paranoia evident in their ravings. I regret to say that our very own leaders seem to have slipped over the edge, beyond neurotic into psychotic. Saying this does not, repeat not, mean that I do not recognize the seriousness of the threats posed by Islamic jihadists--- and other--- enemies of America. What it means is, we cannot trust our current leadership to make intelligent decisions in the long run interests of the United States and the American political system. They have too tenuous a grip on reality and their place in it. God help us all.
They sound like those 20th century dictators for the very reason that those dictators sounded like they did. To capture or hold power.
Insanity didn't drive the fear monger, xenophobic, ultra-patriotic rants of those hideous villains. That was a tool. Just as those same tactics are being used today.
The Republicans in power, who for some reason feel entitled to absolute power, are in serious danger of losing that power. So they turn to the very core of human psychology, hate and fear, in a desperate last ditch effort to retain power.
And to me, the true danger, is that the more they push that message the more they are forced to believe it themselves. The more they have to act on the phony world they created.
And to that point, I completely agree with your assessment: "we cannot trust our current leadership to make intelligent decisions in the long run interests of the United States and the American political system"
Dems are going to use this info/data to the MAX, as well they should.
"So far this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $776 billion, putting the country on course to rack up a record annual deficit for the fifth straight year."
I don't blame y'all for not recognizing it; most of you are too young to remember anything of equivalent import regarding political fight, and those of you who *are* old enough, have only ever been exposed to Joe McCarthy.
How many of you are familiar with the name Lavrienti (Lawrence) Beria? He was executed (as a result of a rigged trial -- a most delicious irony) in early 50ties, but had been the "under the radar" horror of the USSR for decades...
Cheney is to Bush what Beria was to Stalin (hey, maybe we should include that parallel in SATs?
Etc, etc, etc
Cheney is not just familiar... He's *a* familiar (like a witch's pet)
Beria allowed Stalin to rule, with an avuncular smile and an iron fist. Cheney does the same for Bush.
Everyone wants to have a beer with Bush; everyone was happy to toss off a vodka shot with Stalin.
Beria was in charge of NKVD, which spied on the citizens, nailed them and sent them off to the Siberian camps. Cheney does the same for Bush, though we've replaced "Siberia" with "Middle East and Eastern Europe".