What, then, should replace what this writer believes is our addiction to force, our readiness and willingness to use force at the drop of a hat? Should it be efforts to try to work things out peacefully through the UN? Through NATO? Should it be new conceptions under which we do not get involved at the drop of a hat in events in the Middle East and other places? At this point, this blogger does not pretend to any certainty regarding the answer(s) to the replacement question. To me, it is a matter that requires extensive consideration and study in the way discussed below in connection with the creation of a new political party. There are only two things that one believes we can be certain of at this point. One is that the readiness to use force all the time and virtually everywhere -- the addiction to force -- has been, is, and will continue to be a disaster. It should cease.
Secondly, we must begin putting in the docks the criminals who have been behind America=s use of force (and torture) and its correlative violations of both domestic and international law. Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cambone, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Rice -- all these evil people and their ilk should be brought to justice. But bringing people to justice is not limited by age. It should apply as well to the still living criminals of Viet Nam, no matter how ancient they may now be. Kissinger and McNamara, for example, should go into the dock. We have never let age dissuade us from bringing Nazis into the dock -- into their 80s they have been held responsible before the bar of law, and this even when a given Nazi, however horrible his crimes, is responsible for many fewer deaths than the three million or so who died because of the policies of McNamara and Kissinger ( or five million if you count the Cambodian fallout). [Lately we have learned, moreover, that Kissinger, one of the worst moral and perhaps legal criminals of the last 50 years, has also been deeply involved in the current disaster in Iraq as a secret adviser to Bush. Oh my God!]
Putting our own criminals in the dock regardless of age, so that aspirants to such criminality will know they will never be safe, is essential (and at minimum is highly desirable) to stopping our addiction to force. For now the leaders of this government suffer no possibility of liability if they engage in criminal acts, nor is it members of their own families whom they send to die, but members of other people=s families (a phenomenon which Bob Herbert recently called, poignantly, a form of depravity). It is hard to say, it cannot in fact be said, that a leader must send members of his or her own family in harm=s way -- the family members may not even be members of the armed forces. (Can you imagine sending the Bush twits to fight in Iraq? The closest they get to danger is at the local bar or speeding drunkenly in a car.) (It is notable that in the war which cost more American lives than any other, but which was worth fighting, the Civil War, four members of the Cabinet had family members B children or brothers -- in the front lines facing enemy fire. The cabinet members -- Seward, Welles, Bates and Blair -- worried like hell, but kept on with a war that had to be fought. How different from today=s cowards in office, who fight useless wars while their own family members remain in safety.) Since we cannot expect the leaders= family members to be placed at risk, it is all the more imperative that we place the leaders themselves in the dock for criminal acts, as we placed Nazis and Milosevic in the dock, in order to both punish crimes and to deter future criminal resort to force at the drop of a hat, resort that leads to scores of thousands or more of deaths in wars that need not and should not be fought. [Kissinger's secret involvement in Iraq is yet more proof, if such is needed, of the disastrous effects of not sending the criminals to jail or to the gallows.]
* * * * *
Reformers of today find themselves in a position that is something like the one in which the Republican Party found itself in 1860. In those days there was one overriding issue: slavery, or even more accurately, slavery in the territories. But the Party could not win if it were a single issue party, because there were other issues too that concerned people in the North, that concerned many, perhaps even most, of them far more than slavery (with the South being, of course, a totally lost cause for the Republicans). These other issues included internal improvements, opening of the west for settlement, tariffs, and immigration. So the Republicans had to have positions on those issues too, and only by doing so were they able to win the presidential election.
As it was then, so too today for reformers. There is an overriding issue: America=s constant resort to force and fighting of wars. But this issue may not in itself be sufficient to win elections, because people have a deep interest in numerous other issues as well and, besides, those other issues are critical ones. Let me briefly list some of the more major ones, and tell what, if any preliminary or inchoate thoughts this writer currently has. Subsequently, we will get to the question of how fully fledged positions on these (and other) issues should be worked out. (One notes, too, that people who call themselves progressives often have firm views on these other issues, and it is possible, even likely, that a thorough process of working out fully fledged positions may result in adoption of much, even most or all, of their views on given issues.)
Among the other crucial issues that reformers will have to address are these:
1. Health insurance and medical care. Plainly, a new program is needed here. Given the statistical (actuarial) bases of insurance, it is currently hard to see how we can succeed without a single payer system (which means governmental insurance), but we also know that government is incompetent and too often, both at home and abroad, has been as incompetent in this area as any other. There is also the problem that the fantastic rise in medical prices is often caused by advances in new technology, which one does not want to stifle, and by the creation of new drugs, which one equally does not want to stifle (albeit many new drugs are merely what are called me-too or copycat drugs, are merely defacto copies of what already exists and thus provide no new benefits, but are developed merely to allow more drug companies to get in on a gravy train). We can be sure that, unlike Bush and his henchman Leon Kass, we wish to encourage, not stifle, stem cell research. It seems pretty clear that we should also train a lot more health professionals who are not full fledged MDs but can do lots of the work that otherwise has to be done by MDs (e.g., preliminary screening, treatment and prescribing for ordinary illnesses like colds, etc.) In a similar vein, one wonders why we do not get new medical schools -- the static number of these schools is one of the reasons, one believes, that there is a shortage of doctors in various areas and excessive prices for physicians in others. And beyond any doubt, we need to find ways to lower the obscene drug prices that are so harmful to so many and exist mainly, or solely, to enable drug companies to make unbelievable profits.
2. Globalization has to be rethought to some extent, perhaps even considerably. On the one side, there can be no doubt that it has been of great benefit to much of the middle and upper classes, and sometimes even the lower classes, in America and abroad by giving them access to a greater variety of products, sometimes wholly new and/or better products (sometimes far better products, e.g., Japanese cars), and cheaper prices, often much cheaper prices. On other hand, as we have now seen, globalization has resulted in vast losses of jobs for the American working class, large losses of outsourced jobs for the American middle class and increasingly the professional classes too, and serious injury to small businesses and farmers in a host of third world countries in Africa, South America, etc. The longstanding principle (or at least idea) of international economics that everyone is ultimately better off if there is totally unfettered trade may well be true (or at least true for lots of people), but is of no never mind to persons whose lives, and whose childrens= and descendants lives, are or will be ruined by the current incarnations of globalization.
3. The energy problem must be attended to.
4. I know little about it, but it surely does seem that the problem of global warming must be given energetic attention.
5. Much or most of the American education system is a disaster, from the first grade right up through college. People have all kinds of ideas on how to cure the problem, but to this educator the answer seems fairly simple, and dependent on that most important aspect of any society, its culture. Which is by way of saying that at any level there is and never will be any substitute for demanding, from students and teachers alike, discipline, hard work, extensive study, and close attention to the fundamentals -- to the development of good reading, good writing and numeracy. Without attention to the fundamentals, all the no-child-left-behind-type standardized tests in the world (at any level of schooling) will not make any difference, and with close attention to the fundamentals, no such tests will be necessary.
6. If the Supreme Court and the other federal courts turn out to be as bad as liberals fear now that Bush II has put Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court (a fear that may not prove to be well founded), thus carrying forward the conservative court packing started by Reagan, the reformers should seek to borrow a leaf from Franklin Roosevelt=s book but, unlike Roosevelt, should do it honestly. They should seek to pack the Supreme Court and the other federal courts.
Roosevelt=s court packing plan failed for two reasons. There was still, in those days, a tremendous amount of veneration for the Supreme Court. As well, Roosevelt lied about the reasons for his action, claiming it was because the Justices, being old, could not keep up with their workload. The lie was exposed, with bad consequences for Roosevelt.
Today, on every side, the veneration for the Court is less, as it continuously refuses to do the right and moral thing, as people now increasingly think that the Justices are simply nine people picked for their political views and often act like mere politicians in black robes -- as when a majority of them made George Bush president by a decision whose logic was abysmal. (And the animus against them will be phenomenal if they abolish the right of abortion.) As well, reformers should not lie about why they are packing the Court, or courts. They should tell the unvarnished truth. If horrible decisions make it desirable to pack the Court, reformers should say they are packing it to change the horrible decisions. And besides, they should add, those decisions will have been the result of conservative and reactionary court packing and activism from Reagan to Bush II.
7. To the enormous injury of the ordinary guy in the street, this country is infested by secrecy. Secrecy is massive and everywhere. It is hegemonous in the federal Executive, is prevalent in corporations, is a feature of state and local governments, is a major factor in the professional world, e.g., law, is too frequent by far in academia, and so forth. It has made possible torture, other government crimes, secret wars and military actions, a fraudulent economic bubble that burst in the early 2000s, misconduct by lawyers on behalf of corporations, and what not.
Secondly, we must begin putting in the docks the criminals who have been behind America=s use of force (and torture) and its correlative violations of both domestic and international law. Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cambone, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Rice -- all these evil people and their ilk should be brought to justice. But bringing people to justice is not limited by age. It should apply as well to the still living criminals of Viet Nam, no matter how ancient they may now be. Kissinger and McNamara, for example, should go into the dock. We have never let age dissuade us from bringing Nazis into the dock -- into their 80s they have been held responsible before the bar of law, and this even when a given Nazi, however horrible his crimes, is responsible for many fewer deaths than the three million or so who died because of the policies of McNamara and Kissinger ( or five million if you count the Cambodian fallout). [Lately we have learned, moreover, that Kissinger, one of the worst moral and perhaps legal criminals of the last 50 years, has also been deeply involved in the current disaster in Iraq as a secret adviser to Bush. Oh my God!]
Putting our own criminals in the dock regardless of age, so that aspirants to such criminality will know they will never be safe, is essential (and at minimum is highly desirable) to stopping our addiction to force. For now the leaders of this government suffer no possibility of liability if they engage in criminal acts, nor is it members of their own families whom they send to die, but members of other people=s families (a phenomenon which Bob Herbert recently called, poignantly, a form of depravity). It is hard to say, it cannot in fact be said, that a leader must send members of his or her own family in harm=s way -- the family members may not even be members of the armed forces. (Can you imagine sending the Bush twits to fight in Iraq? The closest they get to danger is at the local bar or speeding drunkenly in a car.) (It is notable that in the war which cost more American lives than any other, but which was worth fighting, the Civil War, four members of the Cabinet had family members B children or brothers -- in the front lines facing enemy fire. The cabinet members -- Seward, Welles, Bates and Blair -- worried like hell, but kept on with a war that had to be fought. How different from today=s cowards in office, who fight useless wars while their own family members remain in safety.) Since we cannot expect the leaders= family members to be placed at risk, it is all the more imperative that we place the leaders themselves in the dock for criminal acts, as we placed Nazis and Milosevic in the dock, in order to both punish crimes and to deter future criminal resort to force at the drop of a hat, resort that leads to scores of thousands or more of deaths in wars that need not and should not be fought. [Kissinger's secret involvement in Iraq is yet more proof, if such is needed, of the disastrous effects of not sending the criminals to jail or to the gallows.]
* * * * *
As it was then, so too today for reformers. There is an overriding issue: America=s constant resort to force and fighting of wars. But this issue may not in itself be sufficient to win elections, because people have a deep interest in numerous other issues as well and, besides, those other issues are critical ones. Let me briefly list some of the more major ones, and tell what, if any preliminary or inchoate thoughts this writer currently has. Subsequently, we will get to the question of how fully fledged positions on these (and other) issues should be worked out. (One notes, too, that people who call themselves progressives often have firm views on these other issues, and it is possible, even likely, that a thorough process of working out fully fledged positions may result in adoption of much, even most or all, of their views on given issues.)
Among the other crucial issues that reformers will have to address are these:
1. Health insurance and medical care. Plainly, a new program is needed here. Given the statistical (actuarial) bases of insurance, it is currently hard to see how we can succeed without a single payer system (which means governmental insurance), but we also know that government is incompetent and too often, both at home and abroad, has been as incompetent in this area as any other. There is also the problem that the fantastic rise in medical prices is often caused by advances in new technology, which one does not want to stifle, and by the creation of new drugs, which one equally does not want to stifle (albeit many new drugs are merely what are called me-too or copycat drugs, are merely defacto copies of what already exists and thus provide no new benefits, but are developed merely to allow more drug companies to get in on a gravy train). We can be sure that, unlike Bush and his henchman Leon Kass, we wish to encourage, not stifle, stem cell research. It seems pretty clear that we should also train a lot more health professionals who are not full fledged MDs but can do lots of the work that otherwise has to be done by MDs (e.g., preliminary screening, treatment and prescribing for ordinary illnesses like colds, etc.) In a similar vein, one wonders why we do not get new medical schools -- the static number of these schools is one of the reasons, one believes, that there is a shortage of doctors in various areas and excessive prices for physicians in others. And beyond any doubt, we need to find ways to lower the obscene drug prices that are so harmful to so many and exist mainly, or solely, to enable drug companies to make unbelievable profits.
2. Globalization has to be rethought to some extent, perhaps even considerably. On the one side, there can be no doubt that it has been of great benefit to much of the middle and upper classes, and sometimes even the lower classes, in America and abroad by giving them access to a greater variety of products, sometimes wholly new and/or better products (sometimes far better products, e.g., Japanese cars), and cheaper prices, often much cheaper prices. On other hand, as we have now seen, globalization has resulted in vast losses of jobs for the American working class, large losses of outsourced jobs for the American middle class and increasingly the professional classes too, and serious injury to small businesses and farmers in a host of third world countries in Africa, South America, etc. The longstanding principle (or at least idea) of international economics that everyone is ultimately better off if there is totally unfettered trade may well be true (or at least true for lots of people), but is of no never mind to persons whose lives, and whose childrens= and descendants lives, are or will be ruined by the current incarnations of globalization.
3. The energy problem must be attended to.
4. I know little about it, but it surely does seem that the problem of global warming must be given energetic attention.
5. Much or most of the American education system is a disaster, from the first grade right up through college. People have all kinds of ideas on how to cure the problem, but to this educator the answer seems fairly simple, and dependent on that most important aspect of any society, its culture. Which is by way of saying that at any level there is and never will be any substitute for demanding, from students and teachers alike, discipline, hard work, extensive study, and close attention to the fundamentals -- to the development of good reading, good writing and numeracy. Without attention to the fundamentals, all the no-child-left-behind-type standardized tests in the world (at any level of schooling) will not make any difference, and with close attention to the fundamentals, no such tests will be necessary.
6. If the Supreme Court and the other federal courts turn out to be as bad as liberals fear now that Bush II has put Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court (a fear that may not prove to be well founded), thus carrying forward the conservative court packing started by Reagan, the reformers should seek to borrow a leaf from Franklin Roosevelt=s book but, unlike Roosevelt, should do it honestly. They should seek to pack the Supreme Court and the other federal courts.
Roosevelt=s court packing plan failed for two reasons. There was still, in those days, a tremendous amount of veneration for the Supreme Court. As well, Roosevelt lied about the reasons for his action, claiming it was because the Justices, being old, could not keep up with their workload. The lie was exposed, with bad consequences for Roosevelt.
Today, on every side, the veneration for the Court is less, as it continuously refuses to do the right and moral thing, as people now increasingly think that the Justices are simply nine people picked for their political views and often act like mere politicians in black robes -- as when a majority of them made George Bush president by a decision whose logic was abysmal. (And the animus against them will be phenomenal if they abolish the right of abortion.) As well, reformers should not lie about why they are packing the Court, or courts. They should tell the unvarnished truth. If horrible decisions make it desirable to pack the Court, reformers should say they are packing it to change the horrible decisions. And besides, they should add, those decisions will have been the result of conservative and reactionary court packing and activism from Reagan to Bush II.
7. To the enormous injury of the ordinary guy in the street, this country is infested by secrecy. Secrecy is massive and everywhere. It is hegemonous in the federal Executive, is prevalent in corporations, is a feature of state and local governments, is a major factor in the professional world, e.g., law, is too frequent by far in academia, and so forth. It has made possible torture, other government crimes, secret wars and military actions, a fraudulent economic bubble that burst in the early 2000s, misconduct by lawyers on behalf of corporations, and what not.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
