“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” —
George Santayana, 1905
In 2000, author Kevin Phillips published a prescient piece I’ve since quoted many times as the Republican Party repeatedly attempted suicide.
Herewith, déjà vu all over again from “Dismal democracy under Dubya the Dumber,” the Barbwire of January 21, 2001:
Those searching for portents at the coronation of Bush the Lesser need look no further than the dismal DC weather which greeted the Supreme Court’s 5-4 landslide crown prince.
The February 2000 edition of Harper’s Magazine published the year’s most in-depth yet compact compendium about the shady side of Dubya. Maverick Republican historian Kevin Phillips contributed a fascinating analysis of replays gone bad.
“The essence of political restoration is neither republican nor monarchical. It depends upon the delusionary psychology of a political class willing to let its memory grow more and more clouded until it sees fit to reinstate something second-rate, after that something’s replacement has become even less acceptable. This is why restorations contain an element of farce.
“Both Charles I (of England) and Louis XVI (of France), whose kingly failures began the two previous restoration cycles, were as widely disdained as the senior Bush. And the interlopers who came along to revolutionize their countries’ respective governments — Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard (‘Tumble-down Dick’) in England in the 1650s, and Maximilien Robespierre and then Napolean in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century France — also made themselves unwelcome,” Phillips wrote.
“In both countries, the political elites came to prefer the return of an inexperienced heir. Charles II was called back to England in 1660; Louis XVIII to a re-established throne in 1815…Bush the Younger is classic restoration material…Not a few observers have described him as cocky, lazy and arrogant (like Charles II), and intellectually undistinguished (a perfect late Bourbon).
“These comparisons are not yet proven, of course, but for the first time in U.S. history, the qualifications of a frontrunner for the presidency are converging with those of the Prince of Wales: heredity and birth.”
Phillips noted. He recounted how the new president’s “own mother once made him sit at the opposite end of the table from the Queen of England, for fear of what he might say, when he was 44 years old.”
Rejoicing at the U.S. royal family’s return to power may prove short-lived.
“When the restored James II fell in 1688, that was the end of the Stuart kings. When the restored Bourbons followed suit in 1830, that was the end of their house. Should a Bush Restoration implode on its own whir of cocky inadequacy, that could be a similar last hurrah not simply for the family’s power but for the Republican Party,” Phillips stated. (See his 1999 book, The Cousins’ Wars.)
It doesn’t take much to predict that George II will soon risk American lives in some foolish war. Dick and Colin are back fouling the bowels of government. Few seem to remember that the Gulf War, which continues to kill and sicken so many both here and abroad, was fought to protect the Bush family’s Persian Gulf drilling rights, perhaps the most rotten of all Dubya’s dastardly deals.
On the bright side, perhaps his appointment of the racist John Ashcroft as attorney general will revive states’ rights. After all, Ashcroft publicly praised the neo-Confederate magazine Southern Partisan, a Klan-fan rag which celebrates Lincoln’s assassination!
In his Harper’s cover article preceding Phillips’ sidebar, author Joe Conason concluded “the vast agglomeration of monied influence is what has made George W. Bush both a rich man and a potential president.
Knowing how he became what he is, it’s difficult to imagine Bush cleansing the soiled hem of democracy, as his advertising promises he will do. He professes compassionate conservatism, but his true ideology, the record suggests, is crony capitalism.”
Indeed, Dubya offers a single cure for all ills. At any bad moon on the rise, he howls for a huge tax cut for rich campaign contributors.
German poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said that we become that which we despise.
To anyone who criticized Bill Clinton for breaking his promise to clean up government, remember the words of the Gipper: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
When the FBI was sending up red flags about 9/11 a few months later, Dubya’s dingbat attorney general, defrocked Missouri Sen. Ashcroft, told his staff he didn’t want to hear another word about terrorism. He and Dubya were too busy cutting taxes for their rich friends.
The rest is history.
A LITTLE GIANT HAS FALLEN: Don Cox, 76, died in Sparks on January 2 after a long battle with cancer. He was a fair guy and groundbreaking reporter. Along with Reno Gazette-Journal sports editor Steve Sneddon, he won a Nevada/California Associated Press sportswriting contest about concussions in football – in 19-freakin’- 85!
I dealt with him on many occasions. For some reason, I never forgot the wry advice he once gave me when he called about a story, saying he hoped he hadn’t interrupted anything. I said I had been watching Clarence Thomas on C-SPAN.
“You’ve been watching Clarence Thomas on C-SPAN? Andy, you’ve got to get out more,” he advised in his distinctive growl which bordered on a hiss.
I’ve remembered Don’s words many times since, especially last week as C-SPAN carried the Kevin McCarthy congressional fisticuffs as I continued my self-quarantine at home.
Yeah, I gotta get out more, Don, but being naturally anti-social, I’m in my element.
Rest in peace, brother. You done good.
MODERN MCCARTHYISM: “It got so out of control, I thought I was watching the Oscars.” — Jimmy Kimmel.
SIN OF OMISSION. Don Cox is not in the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. I will work to remedy that oversight. Years ago, successful Barbwire nominee and former Tribune writer Dennis Myers noted that nomination soon after demise works best. That’s exactly what happened in recent years with Dennis and LV Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.
Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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