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First
of all, events have yet to play themselves out to the point
where rational commentary is possible. Much depends on the
result of the Florida re-count – and the reaction of
the losers. Secondly, there is something so profoundly disturbing
about this turn of events – not the closeness of the
election, but the response to it by both parties and the media
– that I find myself paralyzed by disgust.
The
spectacle of the scramble for power, and the gleeful coverage
by the American media, has a circus-like quality about it:
I cannot help but think that this is what it must have been
like in the last days of the old Roman republic, just before
the rise of the Caesars.
There
is a nightmarish atmosphere about these events. It seems as
if the entire facade of our republican institutions has been
ripped away, to reveal the naked power relationships: the
power of the media, the power of money, the power of the two
parties. All this power seems to be overwhelming the rule
of law, or even any pretense of it: all that matters is who
can scream the loudest, and who has the most expensive lawyers.
How the Founders must be turning over in their graves.
My
sense of revulsion at all this should have percolated into
a white-hot anger by Sunday evening, but for now I can only
sit back, and watch, in horrified fascination as the American
republic unravels. Tune in Monday: Hopefully I will have gathered
my thoughts, and found my voice, by then.
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