alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

December 27, 2005

An Impolite Theory of Snoopgate

by AltHippo @ 4:19 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

Matt Yglesias puts it well:

This is honestly just dumb. The story we’re all talking about isn’t a story about how, in September and October 2001, the president authorized some kind of illegal program on a temporary emergency basis before getting things sorted out. That would arguably be forgivable, depending on the details of the hypothetical. The story we’re talking about is that today, on December 27, 2005, more than four years after 9/11, the president is still authorizing some sort of illegal, secret surveillance program.

As does Ezra Klein:

Put another way, although the administration could’ve followed the law, it chose not to because the law is cumbersome and dusty. So, of course, is the Constitution (which was fully ratified in 1790, when they didn’t even have e-mail!) and any number of largely uncontroversial statutes. The question here is whether the Bush administration is really prepared to brandish a theory of law that renders legislation optional when it requires procedural steps and was enacted 30 or more years prior.

In my opinion, Matt and Ezra are being astute observers, if perhaps erring on the side of the polite. Which means that folks like you and me, honeybee, may need to err on the side of the impolite, or at least tread a little less delicately.

So, here’s a bit of impolite treading. Despite all his talk about spreading democracy, Bush, Cheney, et al revere a highly structured class-based society, of which they are the principals. They, the apparent aristocracy are the decision makers. They can do no wrong; even when their excesses become so blatant as in the current Snoopgate case, the system is gamed such that the aristocracy will be preserved. Vocal pundits, most if not all in debt to the current administration will come to their defense. Even the media entity we call “public television” will make this out to be a he-said/she-said case. ( Though, in all fairness, I’ve seen good stuff from PBS recently, and that should be acknowledged. For instance, reviewing Jim Lehr’s interview of Bush ten days ago, I thought he was, as they say “fair and balanced.”)

Let’s follow this line of impolite reasoning to its logical conclusion. If the state is run by the aristocracy, the role of the middle/working class becomes that of keeping the aristocracy in place. Which means that the worker bees need to be managed. If the middle/working class ever seriously objected to their place, then society could become unstable. There would be labor strikes, civil unrest, even rioting in the streets. The artistocratic class must ensure that never takes place.

That means that the middle class needs to be monitored. They must understand, that for their own protection, they can’t become critics of the state. And, if one does become a critic of the state, they need to be made a public example.

Extra credit: have you ever written a post, but then edited it down or deleted it for political reasons? If so, was that because you were afraid of the terrorists, or were you afraid of your own government?

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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