The Partisan Abides

It's become impossible to talk about certain things because the discussion always breaks along very predictable party line fracture planes.

The killing of OBL provides a good recent example.  Obama's National Security Team rejiggers the doctrine for going after the bad guys; they start almost from scratch because Jr Bush just decided to let it slide; and we get some pretty spectacular results in about a year's time.

Now, of course, Dick Cheney and John Yoo are all over the place doing the Told-Ya-So dance, trying to convince us that it was their torture regime that cracked the case when practically anybody who knows anything knows that's bullshit.  But the point is that the discussion breaks down again according to which party you favor, because that's what we get from the Press Poodles and the Opinionators.

So while we yell at each other about The Torture Party vs the Party of Appeasement or whatever recycled crap du jour is on the menu today, we aren't paying much attention to some things that should be pretty important.  eg: Obama has stepped up dramatically the use of these RoboCop drones, pursuing a very aggressive program of targeted assassinations.  And not only does he not feel constrained by international conventions against such things, he seems to have taken to heart the whole Unitary Executive malarkey.  Are "liberals" now OK with a president who does all the shitty things Jr Bush was doing just because he does them better?  Are Dems feeling good about themselves because they finally have a guy who actually goes out there and kills people?  Is that it?

Anyway, I get the feeling Obama's finding it really difficult to do much about reversing some of the damage done to our little experiment in self government the last 60 years or so, partly because of the power trip that goes with the office, but also because of the same ol' political expediency these guys always think they have to serve.  ie: if he goes after any of the Bushies for torture, he first has to get over the huge obstacle of making the case that it's not just a political witch hunt.  I think he's made one political calculation that's totally dependent on the "basic decency of the American people" (always a gamble) in that he's counting on us eventually getting over the truly toxic affects of an ugly combination of 9-11 plus the Authoritarian Reflex, and realizing that doing evil things in the name of goodness is just fuckin' stupid.

Another one may be that he figures if he's careful enough about how he knocks people around; if he can make it look like a "surgical removal of a malignancy", then he's got a shot at balancing the Peace Prize against the Creeping Empire.  Not bloody likely, but there's a weird Yin and Yang vibe to it.  (then again, see "just fuckin' stupid" above).