Being a High Church Skeptic, I am curious why the political establishment and the media are suddenly going after key figures in the Bush administration, including Dick Cheney. And why is the investigation focused on who outed Valerie Plame, an offense of far lesser significance than the fabrication of forged documents, the pyramiding of lies, and other deceptions designed to justify statist ambitions for war? Inquiries into the authorship of the Niger "yellowcake" forgeries; or events preceding 9/11; or the identify of the persons and purposes that were insistent upon war with Iraq, would be far more revealing of the morally corrupt nature of the political system. But, then, that answers my question, does it not?
The Bush administration's policies and practices have become such a disaster and embarrassment to the political establishment as to risk permanent damage to the image of its centerpiece: the state apparatus. Despite the efforts of political figures and media hucksters to divert attention to less disturbing matters, the evidence of deeply-embedded wrongdoing continues to find exposure on the Internet and alternative news outlets. Increasing numbers of men and women are questioning the legitimacy of politics itself. So bankrupt has the American political establishment become that a foreign politician - George Galloway - had to be imported from Great Britain to make the case that his American counterparts are too much a part of the system to make!
The political order has always been willing to tolerate a bit of reform. The boobeoisie can be counted upon to respect - rather than to question - a morally corrupt system that is willing, should the necessity arise, to sacrifice its titular leaders in order to maintain the high-school civics class imagery of the state itself. "We will find out what went wrong and fix it so this will never happen again," is the catechism of faith upon which the system depends as a cover for its wrongdoing. Frank Chodorov expressed this tendency quite well in his critique of those who "want to clean up the whorehouse, but keep the business intact."
How high up the totem pole this charade will reach is yet to be determined. Cheney may be asked to take one for the team and, should embarrassing revelations escalate, even George Bush may be sent back to Texas. But don't delude yourself that Washington or its media outlets have suddenly discovered a sense of integrity. The system is fighting for the salvation of its public image. As was the case following Nixon's forced resignation, the statists hope for a return to normal when a sufficient amount of purgatives have been forced into the body politic, and the patient recovers from its temporary setback.
