BUSH, NIXON, AND JOE McCARTHY

Dana Prom Smith (12/18/05)

My wife, Gretchen, asked me if I thought I were on President Bush’s list of domestic enemies. I said, "I hope so. Someday, it’ll be an honor to’ve been on Bush’s enemies’ list, just like Nixon’s. Some of the finest people I ever knew were on Nixon’s list of enemies and Dirty Joe McCarthy’s."

She asked, "Well, what do you think they’ll find on your email?" "Well, there ain’t no porn if that’s what bugging you. Just a lot of junk from a couple of right-wing, nut bag friends of mine, and my old-fashioned conservative replies about the Republicans’ betrayal of the GOP."

When I read the morning newspapers, watch the news on television, and listen to it on radio, the 17th century political commentator, Thomas Hobbes, comes to mind. He believed that domestic turmoil required governmental repression. He was writing during cruel civil wars in Great Britain. The trouble is that there isn’t any domestic turmoil in the United States. Bush’s excuse is foreign terrorists.

Also, Hobbes had in mind the power of a British monarch who theoretically was accountable only to God, not an elected president who is accountable to American citizens and the United States Constitution. President Bush has already declared that he is in the monarchial tradition by telling us he gets his marching orders from God.

Historically, those who claim they listen only to God and are responsible to Him alone invariably become tyrants. They begin their tyrannies by spying in secret.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2005