Philip Terzian’s petulant Weekly Standard column, Slouching Towards Washington, is no less instructive for being petulant. His thesis, that the press always welcomes a shift from Republican to Democratic administration but not vice-versa, is debatable. But, by detailing some of the honeymoon punditry of the past, he reminds us of the pitfalls that lie in Barack Obama’s path.
In tying current coverage of the incoming Obama administration to past coverage of incoming presidents, Terzian does create a bit of false equivalency. If the salons of Washington and New York sighed in relief the day Jimmy Carter restored Democratic rule, the whole world will sigh in relief when Barack Obama does so. And there are good reasons for that fact that Terzian does not explore. Having said that, there is a surface familiarity in the following:
Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency was so catastrophic that, in retrospect, we tend to forget the circumstances under which he took office in 1976-77. After eight years of Republican rule, featuring the dead weight of the Vietnam war, the oil embargo, and the Watergate scandal, it was, so far as the press was concerned, as if a great menacing army had besieged the body politic since Nixon’s election and been thrown back, at long last, into retreat, perhaps forever.
Yet, the menacing army (Al Haig, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld) would return again…and again. There is a real, if somewhat deluded, sense in which the left would like to believe that the Republicans (of Watergate, of Iran-Contra, of the Niger documents and Downing Street Minutes) are some aberration. Rather than see them as the semi-dominant force of the last forty years of political power in Washington, we’d like to believe that they are merely some disturbance in The Force. Our positive vision of our country does not, and cannot, include them. But they never go away. They are always there, ready to retake the reins of power and lead us into dark places.
There is always some stumbling block upon which Democrats falter and open the door, again, for right-wing rule:
Of course, this is all amusingly quaint three decades later, and during the Carter Transition, nobody mentioned gas lines or Iran or inflation or national malaise or anticipated a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During the Clinton/Bush Transition in 2000-01, the phrase “War on Terror” was nowhere heard, or even pronounced.
This may seem astonishing in retrospect, but reassuring as well. Especially now, in the middle of the Bush/Obama Transition, when the prose is particularly lurid, and America slouches toward another Bethlehem to be reborn.
Here we see Terzian openly finding hope in the surety that our nation will find new crises, through which the Republicans can create division and find their way back to the White House. We’ve seen this before: a communist revolution in China, a faltering war in east Asia, gas lines and a hostage crisis, or fellatio in the Oval Office…there will always be something, some doorway that leads back to the Dark Side. Obama’s job is twofold. First, don’t believe the hype. Second, put a stake in the heart of the movement that has shadowed us from Liddy to North to Libby. Shine a light on these folks, or they will be back.
Phil Terzian is either poor in his history or a liar. Gas lines had occurred before Carter took office and were a concern in during the campaign. Inflation was a persistent problem from the hangover of the Vietnam War. Carter won in part because Ford was seen as not dealing with inflation; Ford’s “WIN (Whip Inflation Now)” button was seen as the extent of Ford’s economic policy. Demonstrations against the Shah of Iran were beginning in the US. The Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan was known to be opposed by insurgents; there was an attempted overthrow of the government of Afghanistan in 1975. All of these were known to the Carter transition team. But in those days, transition was not a big, high visibility event. It was just another example of American government shifting when there is change of presidents.
It was Carter who started us on the road to energy independence.
It was Carter who appointed Paul Volcker, generally credited with stopping the gas-shock and Vietnam outfall inflation, to the Federal Reserve.
The events in Iran and Afghanistan were not off the radar during the transition, it was the absolute incompetence of a post-Vietnam military obsessed by rivalry for getting a mission and the sabotage of US-Iran talks by the Reagan campaign’s mentors George Bush and William Casey that made Iran worse. And Carter did effectively show the USSR that the invasion of Afghanistan was opposed. There were consequences beyond the cancellation of US participation in the Moscow Olympics. In short, Terzian is lying when he calls the Carter administration a catastrophe. It is time BTW that we on the left stop repeating this slander and examine the history.
Likewise with the Clinton-to-Bush transition. Terzian needs to re-read Richard Clarke’s to banish the notion that terrorism was not discussed by the transition team. And I believe that the USS Cole attack happened during the transition. Surely the public was not as blind to the threat of terrorism as the Cold War, jonesing for an Iraq War neocons in the conservative movement.
And the last sentence shows that the current crop of conservatives still see elections as war. It is the “That One” theme dressed up in academic garb. Thoroughly reprehensible.
You outlined the circumstances well as I remember that 1976 election and Carter’s presidency.
I add that, in trying to make an equivalency, Terzian fails to note that all elected presidents since Nixon and before Obama were governors (except Bush Senior who was a virtual incumbent). An important part of the transition and the early effectiveness of those administrations were their abilities to deal with the D.C. system.
My memory is that both Carter’s and Clinton’s administrations tripped initially by ineffectively dealing with Washington politics. On the other hand, though Reagan and Bush Junior both brought contingents from their home states, both administrations seemed more replete with Washington insiders in key positions…especially Bush Junior, of course.
Rather predict the success of a presidency based on his perception of media bias towards incoming Democratic presidents, Terzian would be better off to review how well each president-elect actually managed the factors under his control during the transition period.
The last forty years? I’d say the last forty-five. The power that keeps returning the Cheneys et al to power does not derive from the people as from the military-industrial complex.
That’s why I find who Obama chooses for positions in intelligence, the FBI, etc., to be so intriguing. How far can he go without stepping on the toes of those who can swat him away like a bothersome gnat.
My question of the day: Does Obama really want to be President?
Obama is destined to be one term. Clinton III… an easy GOP return.
Should the Clintons be appointed to head the State Department as rumored, Obama is setting himself up for total disaster. The couple will detract from Obama’s entire agenda as the media focus will be Clinton all the time – 25/8.
HRC is not qualified for SoS. Not a fresh start or change we can believe in.
Phil: There is one thing that you left out of your little bilious, sour screed. When an Administration which is involved in the support of democratic institutions and is opposed to torture, fascism, and the subversion of the Constitution replaces one in which Soviet-style torture, fascist overreach, the pursuit of deranged American Imperialism and the international Police State, and in which Pax Americana resembles “1984”, you will find that many welcome the change. Fascist running dogs like you mutts at “The Weak Standard” are saddened, ’tis true, and what a darn shame that is. Perhaps Bill Kristol can provide some guidance. Oh, wait a minute – he has been UNIVERSALLY wrong since that PNAC document in 1997. I doubt that, with his powers of prescience and self-evaluation, his track record is going to improve any time soon.
But, don’t worry, good times are ahead for the Whiny Bitchy Rightwingnut Cabal. Your subscriptions are going up, up, up, as your connection to reality goes down,down,down.
Have a good time in the wilderness!!