Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia seems to be one of few making sense these days. From recent Senate Floor remarks, May 21 2003:
The reality is that, sometimes, it is easier to ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with whatever distortion is currently in vogue. We see a lot of this today in politics. I see a lot of it – more than I would ever have believed – right on this Senate Floor.There's a lot more, covering questions of governance, etc., before he delivers my favorite line to the senate:
...We were treated to a heavy dose of overstatement concerning Saddam Hussein's direct threat to our freedoms. The tactic was guaranteed to provoke a sure reaction from a nation still suffering from a combination of post traumatic stress and justifiable anger after the attacks of 9/11. It was the exploitation of fear. It was a placebo for the anger.
We cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate. We accept soft answers and shaky explanations because to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be politically costly.Before saying that "this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall." I hope he's right.
On a related note to today's themes, Lewis Lapham delivered the following as part of a commencement address at St. John's College, May 11 2003:
Liberty has ambitious enemies, but the survival of the American democracy depends less on the size of its armies than on the capacity of its individual citizens to think for themselves.
Tyranny never has much trouble drumming up the smiles of prompt agreement, but a democracy stands in need of as many questions as it can ask of its own stupidity and fear.