This one will be shorter than I tend to explore. And more of a personal wondering (wandering?) than analytical essay. I’m curious if this resonates with anyone else.
This selection cycle has already brought us much great entertainment, and we’re not even through August yet. Accompanying the levity, though, usually follows a more substantive conversation. For example, the farce of Harris as The Border Czar Who Never Was is layered on top of very real issues about what national borders and national cultures mean in the 21st century. Similarly, nobody is happier than Turbo Tax Timmeh that Tampon Tim has supplanted him for the best T-based alliteration going. Behind that are very real conversations about government education, biological sex, gender identity, the role of states vs. the feds, legislative vs executive actions, and so forth.
But something else that popped up all over the alternative media and then has just sat there with remarkably little policy substance behind it is the line about being a coward (for leaving the National Guard, for lying about the reasons for doing so, or for lying about the nature of the experience, depending on the exact commentator’s point of emphasis). I think it’s because that one doesn’t fit neat partisan buckets. At a macro level, if we’re being honest rather than merely performative, cowardice is why we’re at where we’re at. For all the late stage empire talk, America is still a remarkably great place to live for the median family. A lot of people on the upper side of the median are especially hesitant to challenge anything, to rock the boat, to do anything that might jeopardize future perks of the system. And so all of our institutions muddle through. There’s nobody to demand accountability or even ask awkward questions because every part of the power structure is involved. Delicate sensibilities abound.
That’s why we haven’t resolved anything for the past couple decades.
We haven’t been willing (yet) to move past the partisan boundaries of the uniparty to ask why American troops were in Iraq (and all over the world) in the first place, never mind to hold anyone accountable for crimes committed in doing so. And nobody dare ask structural questions, like where on Earth are “small government” Republicans in demanding an end to the federalization of state militias in the first place? One more election cycle, then they’ll shrink the government?
Politicians feel like it’s beneficial to them to embellish their resumes because that’s what everyone does applying for the cushier jobs. It’s all fake. It’s all phony. It’s all being your own best cheerleader, from Congresscritters to hospital administrators, from Wall Street to academia.
We haven’t been willing to make it uncomfortable in respectable society to ignore accountability for anyone from war criminals to financial fraudsters. It’s still easier to follow the Hollywood storyline of individual heroes and villains rather than systemic structures and incentives. The cult of personality may be bad when the other guys do it, but it’s sane and logical and strategic and patriotic when our guys do it.
None of this is to make a moral judgment against any one person. That’s not our lane as humans. It’s simply a reflection of where we’re at in aggregate. There can’t be a climax, a shifting from the established globalist order to a new one (either reclaiming Constitutional governance or something more overtly dystopian), until something shifts among ordinary Americans where we no longer care as much about the machinations of being divided against each other as we do about a common purpose, a sense of national unity and social cohesion again. OWS and Tea Party and whistleblowers and so forth almost threatened the system, but it turned out the system was much more internally resilient. And here we are today, with a perfect opportunity to actually talk about weapons of war and what we do with them, but there is little in the way of substance; much noise and little signal.
It’s had me thinking about a comment made by Antonio Taguba many years ago now at this point:
…Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted —both on America’s institutions and our nation’s founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend…
…After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account…
—Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba (USA-Ret.), preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives
I find myself wondering what it will be like reflecting on that quote come 2028 or 2032.
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