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THE BIGGER THEY ARE
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by
Michael Terry
October 22 - 28, 2009 |
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In 1986, an influential French sociologist named Jean Baudrillard wrote a wonderful and important book called America. Embarking on a massive trip around the most powerful country in the world, Baudrillard described the state of the land, the people, and its politics in insightful fashion. When it came to leadership, he discussed the American movement towards the merging of politics and advertising. Of America’s leaders, he said, “They must produce all the signs of the American advertising ‘look’. The slightest failing becomes unpardonable, since the whole nation would be diminished by it.” The battle for popular legitimacy was grounded in image, he argued, not in substance. The evolution of American leadership from the ‘80s until today largely substantiates his claim. From Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush II to Obama, image has largely been everything. What is truly interesting about his commentary is his belief that the slightest failings are unpardonable. What we see in these recent presidencies is precisely that. Their slight failings have usually been called directly into question and they have even been called to account for them. Whether it was Bush the First’s famous “Read My Lips” moment or Bill Clinton getting blown, it is the mundane and ultimately meaningless slip ups that really threaten politicians. In offices other than the Presidency, this is also clear. Senator John Edwards, and Governors Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford have all fallen victim to public batterings on the heels of extra–marital affairs. Congressman Larry Craig was forced to resign after soliciting sex from a man in a public bathroom. Congressman Mark Foley exchanged illicit emails with a young male assistant and was promptly booted out of office.
Whether these activities warrant such punishment or not is not even the issue. What is at issue is that these are the only issues that the public demand real accountability for. An examination of the high crimes of the United States government reveals that the bigger you go, the less you have to answer for. Reagan perpetrated the Contra War in Nicaragua, laundering public funds to wage an illegal offensive. Bush the First was intrinsically involved in that situation. Clinton bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. George W. lied to the country and the world to falsely justify a war of choice in Iraq. He permitted torture and suspension of basic legal rights. Obama has reverted from his previous stance against wiretapping, while stalling on his commitment to shut down the illegal prisons in Guantanamo. Yet, for such activities, many of which are more properly called crimes, Americans have seen no accountability. Is this just because the system is so corrupt and nothing can actually be done? This may be part of it, but another equally important part is that there is a stunning lack of general political will in all of these situations. Sure, opponents of these Presidents and people on the fringes of the political spectrum have been known to protest, to sign petitions, to kick up a bit of a fuss, but ultimately the core of the American body politic doesn’t actually demand anything of its leaders. As the crimes worsen, Americans choose time and time again to rally around their leader, to ignore global criticism and internal dissent, because they are threatened by any disruption in the continuity of the all–important imagery of American power. This is God’s land after all, and the President must be God’s lead actor, his Rock Hudson. There is an uncomfortable similarity between this type of defense of the President and the defense of a false prophet like Warren Jeffs by his brainwashed followers.
In fact, we can go even further back to see a great example of what can destroy a president and what cannot. Richard Nixon was infamously forced to resign after his involvement in Watergate was discovered. In this incident, Nixon used his own operatives to break into the Democrats’ campaign office in Washington in an attempt to gather information about his political opponents. While this was of course an inexcusable act for a President, it was really, as Hunter S. Thompson put it, “low–rent burglary”. This backhanded and petty maneuver was too much for America to bear. And while he deserved the punishment he got for Watergate, what of the vast array of war crimes committed by the nation’s military under Nixon's watch in places like Vietnam? To what account was he held for those atrocities? None. Watergate was “unpardonable” not only because it tarnished the office of the President, it tarnished the image of the office of the President. Something more severe, like high war crimes needed to be ignored and mitigated through history because something of that magnitude could actually destroy that sacred image. The advice to any sitting President is simple: if you want to fuck up, do it big and do it mean. Go all the way with your fuck up. Don’t waste your time with breaking and entering, promising tax freezes, snapping one off at a truck stop or getting head from eager, idealistic interns. That will get you in trouble. Instead, try carpet bombing the hell out of a vulnerable nation. Try sending the military into villages to rape and pillage. Try fabricating intelligence and sharing it with the whole world. Try spying on your own people. Try torturing prisoners you detain without charge. That way, Americans can’t afford to have you prosecuted.
[MICHAEL TERRY]
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