The Blogging of the President: 2004

The Blogging of the President: 2004: "Watergate . . . was a wake up and drive moment for America. Iraq and the economy are converging on another such moment. The first principle of scandals, as we are reminded by the identification of 'Deep Throat' as Mark Felt, is that scandals don't happen, they are allowed to happen. Scandals happen when some institutional players have a reason for putting pressure on someone else."



. . .



""Why is that? Because a scandal is a way of turning things people don't want to hear about - policy, facts, principles, history, numbers - and turning them into soap opera: the bad bad person gets caught.



The Republicans hope that they can hold off recession until after 2008. That way they can



1. Blame it on the Democrat, if they lose 2008. And obstruct anything the Democrat wants to do so that it won't get better.

2. Have 4 years to hope it gets better if they win.



Since the 'Powers that Be' want reactionary government, we should expect to see all the accoutrements of the reactionary order, for example, the cult of Reagan, continue to be pushed by the top down media. What is funny is that this is about the high water mark of the reactionary civic religion in America - the top down media is going to be pushing a religion that has less and less of a constituency."



Stirling Newbery is my hero.



No, seriously. This post is a masterpiece. Read it all.



"However, once a scandal is in play, anything can happen. The 'winner' will be the one who comes up with a good narrative. Jimmy Carter road Watergate to the White House by saying to the American people that the problem was lying. They were lied to. The reality is that the problem wasn't lying, it was energy, and telling the truth to people about energy, namely we had to use less and do more with what we had, wasn't very popular. Americans didn't want to hear that, and so they voted for Reagan, who lied more often, and better, than Nixon ever had.



"Gingrich road Wright's scandals to power. The narrative was that the entrenched Democrats were the problem. Leave aside the Republican Congress is more out of touch and corrupt than the old Democratic Congress was, that was the narrative.



"Bush road Clinton's scandal into power, because he too had a narrative: it was that Clinton was too smart. Stupid is good, you can't trust anyone who uses language well, that's "flip flopping". Like Carter's mantra, it was important because it destroyed the very willingness of people to even listen to the otherside. It got at the core of ethos.



"Thus when the scandal comes into play, the real question isn't the facts, it is the way to string together the details. The side that strings those pearls together to produce a bright glamour, will win."



Readers of this blog will know that I think liberals and Democrats are hoping that Bush is brought down by scandal. Mr. Newbery reminds us that power politics lies behind scandal. Liberals and Democrats are decidedly out of power at this moment. And, Republicans are still hoping to hooverize the Democrats, to put Democrats in the unfortunate position of having to administer the pain, which accompanies adult responsibility. Can they put off debacle in Iraq and economic collapse at home until November 2008?



It seems impossibly long to me, and I wonder what they [the reactionary, Republican power structure] will do, when 2008 seems a bit too far to reach? If the Democrats were to gain control of either house of Congress in 2006, the fat would be in the fire, because, then, there would be some Democrats able to investigate the myriad scandals of the Bush administration. Such a prospect remains remote.



I honestly would not put anything past the Republican powers. Rove is capable of any kind of conspiracy. Bush should definitely watch his health and safety.