The Bush years have increasingly worried me that our political system has entered into terminal old age, where members of a self-perpetuating ruling elite become fixated on their perks and privileges while utterly losing touch with the rest of the country. There is plenty of evidence this is the case, and historically when this happens elsewhere the result is national decline.
Last night’s debate between Obama and Clinton, organized by ABC, is further evidence of a nation increasingly brain dead at the top. There has been considerable discussion of how poor and corrupt George Stephanopoulus and Charlie Gibson were in their “moderation” of the debate, and the points made against them are completely valid so far as I can tell. Their performance is yet another example of why mainstream media should never be owned by corporations. For more on this subject, see here, here, and here.


I want to make another point: the moral depravity of these men. I will pick on Stephanopolous, but Gibson could be used as well. Stephanopolous asked Senator Obama:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, two questions. Number one, do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?

Obama has already answered any substantive issues regarding Rev. Wright in his famous speech on race in America. But I want to focus here on the moral vacuity of the fatuous overpaid twerp, George Stephanopolous. On April 3, 2008, Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss wrote in the Chicago Tribune:

In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.

In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy’s premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief’s medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.
What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America’s biggest cities.
This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. . . .

I have never argued one must have served to love one’s country. I did not serve, and I love my country. Not mindlessley, but not lightly, either.

But there is something obscene for men like Stephanopolous to question the love of country of men like Jeremiah Wright. To Stephanopolous’s moral depravity we can add the rankest hypocrisy, for Rev. Wright’s words were in no way more disparaging of our country than those of many right wing preachers whose endorsement is actively sought by the media’s political huggy bear, John McCain.

Taken as a whole, America’s top elite seems bereft of morality, decency, shame, and competence. One of the promises of democracy is that voting can ultimately eliminate such parasites peacefully. Working in the other ways is the tendency of elites to try and insulate themselves from any challenges to their position, no matter how incompetent they become. I have no idea whether democracy will prove up to the job today, or whether we are in the initial stages of a long term decline in the vitality and well-bei8ng of America.