An Example

November 1, 2004,
With battalions of lawyers waiting in the wings, and new voting machines of unknown reliability, and motor-voter systems that enroll new voters who register a car, whether they are qualified citizens or not, there's a fair chance that a close presidential election may not produce a clear and timely result. In fact, there's a possibility that it could remain contested and unresolved, leading to a crisis of legitimacy.

This will be an interesting example for Iraq -- and the rest of the world.

America's national psyche is a fraught and riven thing, like the soul of one of those tortured trailer park drunks in a television cop show. Our futureless suburban mode of living, our sick addiction to cheap oil, our something-for-nothing casino economy, our remorseless hunger for entertainments, our show biz religion, have all left us unable to function.

At the bottom of this dysfunction is the loss of faith in ourselves and our way of life, which is exactly what happens to a drunk or a drug addict whose own behavior is so self-destructive that he can no longer trust his own instincts or know what to believe.

Our worship of technology (and cluelessness about its diminishing returns) has led us to 'fix' a voting system that wasn't broken, and that will lead us to election results that we do not trust -- to be arbitrated by lawyers. Shakespeare was onto something essential about politics when he has a character in Henry VI say, "First. . . kill all the lawyers."

A second impasse of legitimacy in two consecutive elections would be an extreme crisis for our system of governance. The nation could recover, but probably not without going through the kind of convulsion that a drunk or a drug addict has to endure to sober up. That convulsion is likely to come anyway, in the form of a permanent global energy crisis and the bloody conflict between nations that it will entail. That conflict is already upon us in our awkward attempt to pacify the Middle East, where more than sixty percent of the world's remaining oil is.

Notice that neither candidate for president had the fortitude to challenge the issues of our collective behavior here at home. An election that refuses to resolve will be nature's way of telling us that neither man was qualified to lead this nation out of its self-destructive course.

A gridlocked election in the US will also, of course, be a tragic example for our enterprise in Iraq, which is predicated on our effort to establish legitimacy there by means of fair elections. It was a laudable ambition -- after all, the only alternatives were to impose leadership on them or allow somebody besides Saddam Hussein to seize it. But when our own election ends in a train wreck, what we will we teach them about democracy? Choosing your own destiny is not necessarily the best outcome when your own habits and behaviors leave you too incompetent to function.

Like every other commentator in America, I'll run a post-election analysis on Wednesday Morning.

Comments

[Rodrigo]

our enterprise in Iraq,...was a laudable ambition -- after all, the only alternatives were to impose leadership on them or allow somebody besides Saddam Hussein to seize it

Our only alternatives? Jesus, man. What planet do you live on?

Ann Coulter needs a date. Give her a call, you two see the world alike, maybe you'd get it on.

[Iago]

"Shakespeare was onto something essential about politics when he has a character in Henry VI say, 'First. . . kill all the lawyers.'"

Yes, actually, he was. How unfortunate that a self-proclaimed intellectual, such as yourself, (and author, no less!) has fallen to the level of the ignorant masses who merely repeat what they hear without actually understanding the true meaning (not unlike that portion of the blissfully ignorant and unquestioning American electorate which repeats a certain candidate's rhetorical catch-phrases without investigating the true facts from unbiased sources.)

Ironically, the citation you misapplied was written by Shakespeare to IMPORT the NECESSITY of lawyers in situations very similar to that the country faces today. It was spoken by the character "Dick the Butcher," an anarchist who sought to overthrow the government and install himself as a dictator. Realizing that lawyers are the only protection the public has against a tyrranical government, 'Dick' obviously plotted to dispose of them next.

Alternatively, you were aware of the true meaning behind this quote and assumed your readers were too ignorant to know any better. Either way, you should be more careful before jumping on the fashionable, lawyer-bashing bandwagon. What of the thousands of environmental lawyers out there who share your views? Are they, too, deserving of death in your world?

[orionoir]

since people are giving you a hard time here, i might as well chime in with a *block* *that* *metaphor* critique of your memorable line:

"America's national psyche is a fraught and riven thing, like the soul of one of those tortured trailer park drunks in a television cop show."

okay, it's not quiet as misguided as george costanza's "the sea was angry, like an elderly man returning soup to a deli" and it's not quiet as schizoid as my own "she was pretty in the same way i am handsome, like, not", but still, the imagery leads the reader away from the subject at the hand. america's soul may be riven, perhaps even in exactly the same way as that of a trailer park drunk on a cop show, but still, it's hard to keep a clear head when one is interchanging the wealthiest nation on earth with a poorly housed drunk. it's so much easier on the reader to compare america's riven soul to that of a former a-list celeb smoking crack in an east la flophouse, or, heck, a mangy lion in a sued-into-bankruptcy petting zoo.