I have to give him credit. He is a fighter. Love him or hate him -- or both -- Blagojevich refuses to quit, refuses to melt back into the night, refuses to be inconspicuous. I guess that is a significat part of the strength of his character that got him to be Governor -- his tenacity, his willingness to stay and 'duke it out' when others would be hiding their heads in shame, or wilting under the odds stacked against him. Take note, I did not say that he was a man of integrity and/or ethics -- just an articulate, well-spoken thinker who is trying to hang on by a thread to the defense of his character and the charge agaist him that he is a raving narcissist, or maybe better stated, a 'political sophist' and a 'backroom narcissist' combined together in the same personality -- and as corrupt a politician as there ever has been in the state of Illinois.
And as much as I rolled my eyes when I first heard he was doing the 'tv interview circuit', wondering again why this guy didn't just resign and melt back into the night, or at least defend himself at the 'impeachment trial' against him -- still, having watched the Larry King interview with Blagojevich last night, and the one after that on CNN with 'DL' is it?, I have to say that I think the interviews are doing him -- and America -- some good. Let's get all the 'dirty laundry' on the table, get some full transparency in this matter -- and then the courts, the politicians, and America can all have their respective say on just how 'dirty and corrupt' Blagojevich is, and whether or not there are indeed some 'systemic failures in human rights' as far as the 'Illionois impeachment' process goes. And whether a Governor of a State should be allowed to 'nominate' a State Senator at all.
Parts of what Blagojevich was saying I actually agree with. In America -- and in Canada -- we have to guard meticulously and passionately against the very real dangers of 'Kangeroo Courts' and/or alternatively, 'Scapegoat Courts'. One of our key American and Canadian rights - 'the presumption of innocence until proven guilty' -- is indeed, withering away. And that is a very big American-Canadian Democratic problem. We also need to guard meticulously and passionately against 'Government and Police Home Invasions of Privacy' -- whether that is relative to 'wire-tapping', 'knocking down the front door', and/or 'computer home invasion'.
The freedom and the sanctity of the individual in his or her own home is also withering away. Part of this has come about through the 'War on Terrorism', other parts through issues of 'domestic violence' and 'child pornography'. Obviously, we want to curtail these problems, and win these different wars convicting the people who deserve to be convicted. However, at the same time, we need to make very sure that we are accusing and convicting the 'right people', the people who are dangerous to society -- and not coming up with more and more 'false positives' on the basis of scapegoating different sub-sections of society and taking away more and more civil rights from these different groups (Muslims, men, separated fathers...). Or for that matter, taking away civil rights from all sections of society in whatever investigation that police and/or the government wish to engage in at any particular time. Turn off your computer. Both the private sector -- and Big Brother -- are watching you! How about making 'computer viruses' and 'adware' and 'spyware' and 'malware' all being illegal? How about 'computer spying' as being a form of 'invasion of privacy'. I assume that the Blagojevich 'wiretaps' were legal and required a search warrant. But does computer spying require a search warrant. How can it when thousands of people -- corporations and government alike -- are doing it everyday?
Two quotes by Nietzsche are totally revelvant to what I am talking about here:
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Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions. -- Friedrich Nietzsche (This sounds very Hegelian to me and anyone who has studied philosophy seriously knows that Nietzsche came to hate Hegelian dualistic and dialectic philosophy. In contrast, I believe that 'The Birth of Tragedy' -- which is very Hegelian and dialectic in its perspective -- is Nietzsche's best, and/or at least his 'most homeostatically and therapeutically grounded' work.)
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. -- Friedrich Nietzsche (This sounds very Psychoanalytic to me -- with Nietzsche having some significant insight into the subconscious mind and its tendencies towards 'projection', 'introjection', 'identification', 'identification with the aggressor', and 'projective-identification'. In many ways, again particularly in 'The Birth of Tragedy', Nietzsche anticipated and foreshadowed much of what Freud was to elucidate and elaborate to the world in full Psychoanalytic force.)
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In our political and legal exuberance to get more and more of the 'bad guys', we have to guard more and more against the political and legal accusations and convictions of 'false positives' -- of people who are innocent -- or less guilty, or not the only ones guilty -- of the political and/or legal accusations leveled against them, and then turning these accusations into 'witchhunts' and 'self-fulfilling prophecies' and 'Kangaroo Courts' and 'Scapegoat Courts'...Because if we let our political and civil and legal rights as individuals deteriorate any further in the areas that I have described then we are fast becoming a society of 'Political and Legalized Lynch Mobs' and 'Vigilantes' with a brand of ethics and integrity and law and order that is no better than the types of crime that we are trying to fight against.
We cannot allow Federal or State or Provincial Governments, or Politicians at any level of government, or Courts or Judges or Prosecutors or Police Men and Women, or Bankers or Mortgage Lenders on Wall Street, or Automobile Owners and CEOs, or Labour Unions to have so much power and have so many of their own unbridled rights that they have the ability to walk all over and exploit the people -- women, men, and children -- who live on Main Street, or for that matter, who work on Wall Street, or in any one of the other professions that I have listed above.
I look at Blagojevich's self-proclaimed political accomplishments as Governor of Illinois -- free public transportation for Seniors, and free medical care for children (if I got this right) -- and I like these accomplishments.
However, that does not have anything to do with the issue at hand. If Blagojevich was trying to 'sell the Illinois State Senator's job' -- and it certainly seems like he was, from the words coming out of his mouth from the tapes, 'context or no context', then he deserved to be impeached.
Which is not to say that there should not be some serious 'revisions in political process' here: 1. Governors shouldn't be nominating Senators, nor should they have the right to nominate themselves; and 2. 'Defendents' in a political impeachment process should be able to properly defend themselves including bringing in any witnesses that may help their defense. Precautions need to be added to 'government impeachment policy and process' such that no defendent can be 'railroaded', 'tried in a Kangeroo Court', and/or tried in a 'Scapegoat Court'. We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship or a 'pseudo-democracy with 'Gestapo-like Secret Police' and 'pseudo-courts' that don't give political defendants their full human and civilian rights, and don't allow them to fully defend themselves under the presumption of 'innocence until proven guilty'. And likewise with the 'political jury' in these types of cases their needs to be an establishment and proof of 'guilt beyond a reasonable doubt'. No 'Hung Juries' before the defendent even shows up for 'trial'. Otherwise, it's a 'mockery trial', not a democratic one. Finally, once an impeachment process has started, there should be an immediate suspension of the politician's (Governor's) duties until after the impeachment process is over. Including potential nominations of 'new Senators'.
On these counts, the U.S. and/or Illinois Governments stand 'accused' and need to properly acknowledge and answer these accusations to the satisfaction of the American people.
So there can be no more cases -- and no more mockeries -- of American politics and justice like the Governor Blagojevich reality soap opera show that hopefully has played itself out.
-- DGBN, February 1, 2009.
-- Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism
-- Dialectical Gap Bridging Negotiations...are still in process...
-- David Gordon Bain
