I Get These Letters...

A reader writes (Now THERE'S a phrase!):

The following point struck me:

"Bush was born an aristocrat and therefore above the law just enough, because laws don't exist to limit aristocrats: laws exist in the main to protect aristocrats from ordinary folks. When and if ordinary folks attain aristocracy, they too will enjoy immunity from limitation." (quoting LO)

It seems then that the smear campaigns unleashed on those running for high office are merely a sort of fraternity hazing for these folks. If you make it through, then you're in the club. But the club doesn't necessarily embrace your presence if you're Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell or Barak Obama.

Yup, that's it. The club is comprised mostly of guys whose pedigrees are sound. Bush's grandfather was a merchant in Ohio, but he did well enough to get Prescott into Yale. I imagine there was a certain lack of respect by many of the Roosevelt / Vanderbilt crowd for the newbie, but with initiation into Skull and Bones and other boola boola stuff, and the more egalitarian mid-20th century, P-man got his shot. He clearly embraced the nobility, too, supporting Hitler's industrialization at the same time kristallnacht chilled the world. But you know all that.

In Dan T. Carter's awesome study of George Wallace, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics, Wallace is revealed as an insecure and bashful young man from a compromised background who makes it to college by force of will and absolute tenacity. But Wallace is unable to overlook the snubs of wealthier classmates—indeed, his perception of being snubbed, even as the politer set invited him in or simply didn't notice him. Wallace was determined to make those people remember him, to have to respect him.

This disadvantage may have affected Jimmy Carter, whose era was preceded by the earthiness of Lyndon Johnson (preceded himself by the urbane Kennedys) and the Civil Rights era, both of which cast the South in a very dim light. Whatever the outcome, I think it's more likely that the non-inclusion in "the club" of Southerners Carter and Clinton has more to do with their being Democrats in an age of statist Republicans who play dirty. But keep in mind, Clinton and the Bushes get on famously. His chief ambition has been to be in that club and I think he really wanted to cinch the deal with a Hillary Presidency. That's why he's so put out by Obama, I think. But that's just my Opinion.

As to Colin Powell, I believe his story reflects the opposite success of Prescott Bush. Powell was respected and capable in the 80s when practicality, for better or worse, was the operative plan. Since George W. Bush's 2000 coup d'etat, bungholes like Cheney and Rumsfeld have their own agenda. W himself is historically deficient in fielding advice, and he is Oedipally motivated anyway to be anti-practical. Powell showed up ready to work, but was completely ignored. I bet they laughed at him behind his back, too.

I believe Barak Obama has ambitions like Clinton's, but is free of the Southern inferiority complex. Like Clinton, I think Obama looks forward to mobilizing his profound talent in service to the universe. And being President is a pretty good job, too: at 54, he can retire in phat style and be able to brag about fixing 43's wreckage. As to being in "the club," his success or failure will determine that.

Let's say he's FDR level, turning a long national nightmare of conservativism into a new national mindset of working together, attacking the problems, etc. His youth and personal qualities will make him Captain-of-the-football-team popular. As it will usher in 20 years of Democratic government, he will be that Party's champion and the king of the mountain. Republican followers will reverence him as Democratic lapdogs once crowned Reagan.

But let's say he meets his match as Carter did with, well, everything; or as Clinton did with the conservative takeover. The war in the Midle East, which Obama is steadily endorsing, mires as you'd expect it to do in Afghanistan. Russia gets more aggressive and China continues its economic pressures. Europe gets on the Asian bandwagon and treats the US like Scandinavia or something and things just keep getting worse. You know, historical factors that can be predicted but scarcely controlled. Then you'll see the invitaions limited to speaking engagements as a one-term ex-Prez. Guys like the imperious John Kerry can shake their heads in sage disappointment.

Then our reader writes (easy, now):

In fact, the former Governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, has recently been sending emails to the hoi polloi crying that he was wrongly convicted of criminal corruption charges due to a nefarious scheme hatched by Karl Rove. Seems he now wants the laws to limit Karl Rove's dirty work. It would seem he and Karl are in the same elite club, protected by laws. But now he wants the ordinary folks to now rise up against one of those folks who has attained aristocracy and enjoys "immunity from limitation," as you put it.

In Siegelman's case, Rove took political tricks to the Republican extreme—"what worked for Mao works for now!" Instead of catching the guy with a hooker or something, they actually concocted a jail sentence! Geez, Federal Prosecutors only got fired: Jail is huge. Referring again to Dan T. Carter's book about Wallace, governors of Alabama enjoy heading a culture of graft, generally revolving around highway contracts. However the criminal enterprise, aka "government," operates in Alabama today, Siegelman in no way is near the Bush / Kerry / Rockefeller level. THAT is a national thing to which petty slurps like Jindal and Quayle aspire.

Of course, Siegelman has an opportunity to turn his situation into an American Mandela, maybe. His stainless reputation sullied by the likes of Karl Rove, now serving a 22-year sentence under RICO (come on!—DREAM with me!!), Siegelman foments a grassroots effort at vindication and National Change. Etc., etc. I bet he even daydreams about crashing the secret buildings wherein John Kerry and Diane Feinstein and Neil Bush drink special wines known only to them and plot the continual overbuilding of the financial districts in America's largest cities, and serving them warrants for sedition in the Name of the People of the United States.

Yes. Just as George Wallace seethed because he wore a five-dollar suit to the Senior Dance, and his own insecurities prompted his angry rise to those Tuscaloosa steps, Siegelman maybe sees his time emerging. Or it could be he's on a sole-minded campaign to clear his name and bring an actual, comic book-level criminal to justice.

(Don't hold your breath. These ARE Democrats, after all. They seem to need Republicans breaking laws without consequences, because consequences are just so darn hard to do, you know?)

OK, then. As I said, people write in...