It’s like one of those old 1950s’ black-and-white movies. "Seven Days in May." Everybody looking worried. A coup overthrowing democracy. A dictator installed in full military dress. Henry Fonda. Burt Lancaster. Walking out of the theater saying, "Great flick. Couldn’t happen here, though."
Fast forward. Post 9/11. The horror of planes crashing into the Twin Towers. Tom Clancy. Fear has spread all over the country. Four or five years later, it is still there.
The president came into office as a harmless, likeable schlub with a famous name. Americans get comfortable with famous names. There were the Roosevelts, the Kennedys and now the Bushes. But this smiling guy who you want to have a drink and talk some baseball with actually thinks deep down he’s better than his father, who, after all, failed to get re-elected. Failed to hold the line on taxes. Failed to get Saddam. This handsome guy has morphed from Yale man into Clint Eastwood; from the tables down at Maury’s to the Texas oil fields. An all-American boy, he thinks maybe his role model ought to be Winston Churchill instead of Daddy. He likes power more than people think. Gets cozy with it. Likes the sound of "wartime president."
People are so scared of another 9/11 they’re willing to give up anything to feel safe. Even willing to go along with invading what might be the wrong country. But the cowboy president seems so sure of himself. Even though these terrorists haven’t even been able to lick Israel, which is strong, but it’s no United States. No matter how many times they blow up cafes or shoot people at bar mitzvahs, the Jews are still there, so how could they defeat the Americans, who are way over here? Nobody stops to figure it out. The fear just spreads with every orange alert, every "foiled plot."
The president and his men have figured it out. They have discovered it’s easy to secure power by playing off the fear. They didn’t start out to steal our freedom, they just wanted to stay in office. Chipping away at democracy was not the intention. Just let me show Daddy I can do what he can’t: get Saddam, not cave on taxes, win a second term and write my name in the history books. Is that too much to ask?
Little by little, they steal some of the democracy. Like well-intentioned embezzlers, they want to put it back but find it’s easier to steal democracy then restore it or, in the case of foreign land, install it.
The Patriot Act is a little rough around the edges. I mean, getting lists of the books borrowed from the library? But people are so distracted by their HDTVs and iPods and so gosh darn busy trying to figure out which stocks are up and which are down, they never notice the small thefts. Then the thefts get bigger.
When opponents protest, they mock them as cowards that can’t be trusted. We’re not just in a battle with some freedom-hating terrorists, we’re in a war of civilizations, a battle for our very existence.
There also is the thing about torture. Nobody gets upset. Fear tells them, if you have to torture the bad guys like they do on that TV show "24," then go get ’em Jack Bauer. The president assures that we aren’t torturing, but he says it with a wink and a nod. We are finally in on the joke. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. A couple of pesky politicians from his own party try to protest, but they cave in the face of political ambition. The Court will cave, too, since the president owns this one.
The people seem distracted. Who won "American Idol"? What’s the point spread on this week’s NFL game? That’s when they find out habeas corpus has disappeared. But what the hell is that anyway? And didn’t they tell me on Fox News Abe Lincoln did away with it, too? This is all just temporary until we defeat the terrorists, right? Well, that might take a while, but you’ll get used to living without the right to ask the police why they are taking you away to some nice, dark cell — but that only happens to enemy combatants, right? And look who defines what an enemy combatant is: It’s the handsome, tall guy with that Texas squint — the wartime president.
Usually, in the black-and-white movies, something happens at the end and the would-be takeover of the White House is thwarted. The evil military war mongers are destroyed, and peace and democracy and Henry Fonda survive. But this time, even the military has been snookered and shut up.
If this were a Frank Capra movie, Jimmy Stewart would save the day. But, have we run out of happy endings?
