Norman Mailer was on Book TV this week with his youngest son (nine children ... who knew?) promoting their new book which apparently involves them discussing various issues. NM made a sound point respecting why invading Iraq even to "promote democracy" was a bad idea, one that basically reflects my bottom lime position. [The war was a mess for any number of reasons, but I was against it on principle as well as pragmatics.] Iraq had to find democracy on its own ... after years of "shame" ... not be given it by "some rich uncle they see twice a year."
I compare it to our own situation, and have not really heard a sound rebuttal (or even many willing to face the idea ... the underlining sentiment seems to be that they are somehow "different" from us), before the Civil War. If Britian invaded us to end slavery, which a majority of the country thought was on some level an evil, and clearly violated the rights of millions ... would we have agreed to it? In fact, look at the Reconstruction: a half-ass attempt to protect the civil rights of blacks that we grew tired of in less than a decade, and resulted in lots of trouble in the long run.
Surely, on some level, it was a good thing. But, freedom alone was not enough. Anyway, we had to fight our own civil war, and our own demons. Others did not come in and do it for us.
Meanwhile, though NO pops up on the Al Franken Show weekly, he is no liberal. Still, he knows -- along with others of his sort -- that the system is broken. And, the Republicans only made things worse:
While I am familiar with the prior work of Mann and Ornstein, which is always distinguished by its excellence, all that I know about their new book, to be published in June 2006, is the pre-publication description. According to the publisher (Oxford Press), this latest work reveals that after forty years of Democratic control, the House of Representatives was in need of reform. But that did not happen.
Republicans promised reform in 1994, when they won control of the House for the first time in four decades. But rather than deliver it, GOP leadership has - according to Mann and Ornstein - undermined the institution through "the demise of regular order, the decline of deliberation and the weakening of our system of checks and balances."
Speaker Dennis Hastert is described in the pre-publication material, based on his own words, as more of "a lieutenant of the president than a steward of the House." Accordingly, Mann and Ornstein's book suggests, "the legislative process has been bent to serve immediate presidential interests and have often resulted in poorly crafted and stealthily passed laws."
I truly think we need a change of party control of at least one part of our national government for real change to occur. Nonetheless, it is not impossible for there to be respectable Republicans out there that realize party is not all that matters. Unfortunately, and damn the principled loyalists who stick with Bush anyway as if the alternative is hell on Earth, they have not stood up to be heard when it counted. Sen. McCain, for instance, does not deserve to win in '08, even if you respect his conservative views (principle only goes so far -- I would not have voted for him in '00, but would have been less distressed if he actually won). He has shown his lapdog side too often by this point.
But, if change does come, perhaps the principled sorts can come out of their holes. Who knows? Many claim that many of them are "ashamed" too, but just do not have the guts to risk their positions. For now, the system is broken -- it is not just progressive Joe (fill in appropriate label) talking here -- and new blood is needed. I don't see any compelling evidence that this will include too many with "Rs" next to their names, so this means voting Democratic ... though they leave something to be desired at times too (I must give props to Sen. Reid -- at various times he has shown a good bulldog tendency).
Anyway, that book sounds good. I also managed to pick up the anti-Wal-Mart documentary at the library (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price) -- pretty good with the added benefit of having a quickie twenty minute version on the DVD as well. Also, some amusing takeoffs of their advertising. I love the use of the term "associate" -- it's like Zonker being the "vice president" at his theme restaurant in Doonesbury.