In 1973-74, the East Coast media and the Congress went after Richard Nixon, who had won a landslide election the year before. Those of us who hated Tricky Dick were thrilled at the justice of it all. We were told that "the system worked", and that crimes of state would be punished, and that media was an alert watchdog keeping an eye on those in power. And for a while, I believed.
Now I believe that that scenario was a bunch of hooey. I think that Tricky Dick was right and "they" were after him. I don't know what he did, but he royally pissed off part of the ruling class, and they got rid of him. He had Spiro Agnew as his impeachment insurance, but that insurance was as good as flood insurance in New Orleans, when it was decided to dump him. Sprio Agnew was gone in weeks, and Establishment favorite, Gerald Ford was placed in waiting.
Then I watched the media play up the hostages in Iran in 1979. Day after day, we were treated to updates and countdowns. There have never been, before or since, such important hostages. And so, bye-bye, Jimmy. Hello Ronald Reagan, the man the media tell us to this day that "we" all loved. (Which sends me into sputtering fury whenever I am so informed.) How will this election play out? It seems very clear to me that Obama is their man. But, apparently, there are rogue elements in the Republican Party apparatus who seem determined to steal another election, even though the ruling class wants to play Team B this time. The repubs are using the same dirty tricks that they used the last few times. Caging, voter suppression, voting machine tampering, etc. Well. They weren't supposed to do that this time. So, here's my guess. If they manage to "elect" McCain, we will see a massive media "expose'" of voting fraud. All that has been ignored for the last 6 years will suddenly be discovered and uncovered. There will be Pulitizer Prize winning reporters who will be lauded for years to come, like Woodward. (But those reporters won't be the ones that have been on this story, like Bob Fritrakis, Brad Freeman and Bev Harris, of course.) 60 Minutes will be on it. It will even be on your local network station. And the most disgusting part? The part where they congratulate the system for working!
