Impeachment: in the Technorati top ten
The other day as I was driving around my blue-as-blue-can-be town of nearly-disappeared anti-Bush bumper stickers, I glimpsed one of the last holdouts: a Volvo proudly emblazoned with a whole bunch of them. The one that particularly saddened me was a slogan I'd seen many times before, "Bush is not my President."
It's one thing to hate Bush, but it's quite another to declare a personal secession from the Union. As even the Washington Post said today, in an editorial about Reid's announcement to vote against Roberts' confirmation: This country has only one President at a time. But just try telling that to the bumper sticker lady.
In a related phenomenon, whenever I've ambled over to Technorati lately to check on some topic buzzing around the blogosphere, I've noticed that one of the top ten most searched-for subjects there is consistently "impeach Bush." It moves around in the ranks, sometimes higher and sometimes lower, but it is virtually always somewhere in that top-ten list.
It makes me wonder when impeachment became the preferred remedy for dealing with a Presidency one doesn't like. Perhaps Watergate, which seems to have been the beginning of so many negative trends in American life. I remember the first Presidential impeachment bumper stickers (Earl Warren doesn't count) appearing during that era.
Then, by the time Clinton was elected, impeachment had become almost a standard remedy. Clinton's many enemies seemed to be salivating for it almost from the start of his Presidency. Of course, with his execrable behavior during the Lewinsky affair, he kindly cooperated by giving them nearly enough rope not only to impeach him but to hang him (they thought he actually had given them enough to hang him, but history proved them wrong).
This is certainly not the first era, however, in which impeachment is a political tool. Perhaps it always has been: see this. Despite the early establishment that political differences are not proper grounds for impeachment (the Justice Chase case in 1805; see previous link), it's been tried before, and probably will be tried again.
But even during the darkest days of the Vietnam War, when LBJ and later Nixon were considered by the left to be war criminals, I don't recall seeing bumper stickers that took the impeachment line. They were Presidents of us all (hate them though many of us did), right up till the moment the first one bowed out of the 1968 race and the second one was forced to resign in ignominy. Ever since then, so many on both sides have been desperately hoping for a repeat.
posted by neo-neocon @ 11:48 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I lived in San Jose, CA in 1973 and remember, just after the Saturday Night Massacre, seeing a bumper sticker which read, "DON'T IMPEACH; CASTRATE"
Whoa, that's upping the ante!
It looks a bit disturbing on the surface of it, but realize there's a concerted effort by the Bush Derangement Syndrome victims on the blogging left to put it there and keep it there. See NZ Bear's post titled "Gaming Technorati" for a lesson on how it's done (with reference to another search term).
"Bush is not my President." reminds me of the Passover story of the four sons.
Each of the four sons symbolize a different type of Jewish person. One son is wise, another is simple (this son is regarded as simple because of his indifference and unconcern), still another is wicked, and the final one is very young in age, too young to inquire about Passover, and therefore silent.
The wise son inquires about why the Jews practise the customs of Passover. Those assembled at the Passover seder table respond in unison, describing this son as wise, since he wants to know more about the Passover traditions of his people.
The simple and indifferent son asks in more general terms what is all this he sees at the Passover seder table. Those at the Passover seder table respond by educating and reminding the simple and indifferent son about G-d's favors toward the Hebrews during the time of slavery in Egypt, and the importance of remembering and observing them, and remembering them with gratitude.
The wicked son wants no part of the Passover traditions and asks why the Jewish people - other than him - practise the customs of Passover. Those at the Passover seder table respond by describing this son as wicked, since he thinks Passover customs are meant to be practised by other Jews, but not him.
Finally, the young and silent son who does not know enough to inquire is simply told about the Passover story in accordance with the biblical command: "And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: it is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt".
The BDS's among us remind me of the Wicked Son.
It's a Big Lie Propaganda Technique. Not very effective, although effective enough to convince some black people that they were "flooded intentionally". And I guess that counts for "progress" for the far left.
The Big Lie can be summarized as "When you lie, lie big and bold, on the basis that little lies are hard to believe but big lies are so audacious people cannot help but trust in it. And when you lie like that, you KEEP lieing, until people believe it."
Like I said, not exactly the most skillful use of propaganda. Quite unimaginative.
I find the "Bush is not my president" thing to be very revealing. I don't mean to pidgeonhole people, but aren't some of these people the ones who decry the division of our nation and speak of "uniting rather than dividing"?
An amusing sticker is the one that says "Bush/Orwell 2004" which these people believe to convey the message that Bush is big brother. What is amusing is that Orwell was the one to shatter (in my mind) the illusion of socialism as savior to all. I am often told that Bush is "Orwellian" by many "liberals". I suppose the irony is that these people display as much paranoia and arrogance as what they claim that the republicans hold (think "Democratic Underground" or "True Majority"). It almost becomes satire .That is my bit anyway.
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