But I Said I Was Sorry

by digby

Francis Fukuyama writes a WATB essay in today’s LA Times about how mean everybody is being to him now that he’s changed his mind about Iraq. He names Charles Krauthamer as being a mean rightie for saying he’s “an opportunistic traitor to the neoconservative cause — and a coward to boot,” but fails to name any of the mean lefties. He just claims we say stuff like he has “blood on his hands” for having initially favored toppling Saddam Hussein and that his “apology” won’t be accepted. Now that’s mean.

He goes on to decry the awful polarization of our politics and wrings his tiny hankie about how counterproductive it all is. (I don’t recall Francis taking a stand against partisan blowjob impeachments but perhaps he was too busy documenting the end of history to notice.)

But what I really like is this paragraph in which Fukuyama illustrates how both parties are equally to blame:

This kind of polarization affects a range of other complex issues as well: You can’t be a good Republican if you think there may be something to global warming, or a good Democrat if you support school choice or private Social Security accounts. Political debate has become a spectator sport in which people root for their team and cheer when it scores points, without asking whether they chose the right side. Instead of trying to defend sharply polarized positions taken more than three years ago, it would be far better if people could actually take aboard new information and think about how their earlier commitments, honestly undertaken, actually jibe with reality — even if this does on occasion require changing your mind.

Did you notice what I noticed? The example he cites has the Republican being called a “bad” Republican if he refuses to deny reality. The Democrat is called “bad” for disagreeing with the long standing policy positions of the Party. Can we all see the difference between those two things? I knew that you could.

Get ready to hear a lot of this whining now that the Republicans may be at the end of their looting spree. They made their money, got their judges, their tax cuts and their wars. Now it’s time to put the past behind us and make nice nice. We’re supposed to end to all this nastiness and forgive and forget. For the good of the country, of course.

I have written this before, and I’m sure everyone is tired of reading it, but the Republicans must be held accountable for their actions or they will come back like the undead and do this again. We failed as a country to properly discipline this corrupt rogue faction when they tried this executive power grab in the 70’s and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and others came back to try it again. We need to drive a figurative stake through the heart of this pernicious philosophy.

Fukuyama plaintively admits:

…I believe that the neoconservative movement, with which I was associated, has become indelibly associated with a failed policy, and that unilateralism and coercive regime change cannot be the basis for an effective American foreign policy. I changed my mind as part of a necessary adjustment to reality.

That’s nice. But I don’t think we should take a chance that this nonsense will raise its ugly head in another 30 years. These people have proven they can’t be trusted to tell the truth or follow the laws. We need to make sure they get the message this time.

Oh, and by the way. If you don’t think this resurgence of victimized whining has a purpose, think again. I heard Karl Rove speaking to the Republican Lawyers Association on Friday (via C-Span) and he was going on and on and on about how the Democrats are cheating in elections. He cited “case” after “case” in which Democrats are disenfranchising Republicans all over the country. It’s shocking: the voter fraud, the throwing out of Republicans absentee ballots, the partisan vote count manipulation. He’s very worried about the integrity of our elections and thinks Republicans will be at a permanent disadvantage is something isn’t done. I kid you not. Get ready for the cries of disenfranchised Christians. It’s coming.

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