NERO NATION
By Justin Frank, MD
Originally written in July 2001. I revisited this essay and found it very relevant to American political life in 2021, especially to the media’s coverage of our disgraced and dangerous ex-president Trump.
If I had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to think nothing.
- Melville, Moby Dick p85 (Norton Edition)
There is something rotten in the State of Denmark. Only this time, in Washington, there is more than one something. At least three things are rotten. The way Bush became President; how lightly most elected Democrats view his destructiveness; and the virtual absence of media alarm or even criticism.
But it has always been thus: Phil Ochs sang about it: “Look outside my window there’s a women being grabbed, she’s taken to the bushes and now she’s being stabbed; maybe we should call the cops and try to ease the pain, but Monopoly’s so much fun and I’d hate to spoil the game…” Now, nearly 40 years later, just change “taken to the bushes” to “taken by the Bushes”…