Prominent blogger Andrew Sullivan paid a visit to the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum last evening for a speech and a Q&A session. I spoke to Sullivan for a few minutes before the dinner. On the concept of blogging, he pointed out that there was something great about being able to participate directly in politics without having to dress up, put on makeup, go on TV or even get out of bed. I asked him how he feels about being recognized as one of the pioneers of the "new media" to which he replied, "I’m amazed," and said that it seemed so obvious that that was the path we were going down. He offered one of the best metaphors about blogging that I’ve ever heard: "I’m more like a DJ than a songwriter," he said, "My job is to take pieces of news and mix and scratch."
Sullivan’s speech was a sharp critique of the post-9/11 political climate of the United States and the impacts of the Bush administration’s actions of constitutional liberty in America. "How did we get here?" Sullivan opened, asking whether Bush and Cheney will henceforth be viewed as an "aberration of the Republican Party" or its foundation. He pointed out that in the first 10 days of the Barack Obama presidency, we have managed to "restore constitutional order," after seven years of a "crisis of constitutional order."
Sullivan exclaimed that after the attacks of September 11, 2001, former President George W. Bush was "out of his depth, overwhelmed," and decided that the rest of his presidency was going to be about preventing another 9/11. Around the same time, said Sullivan, Vice President Dick Cheney "took over American government and continued to control it for the next seven years." Sullivan expressed skepticism regarding Bush’s claim that he "kept us safe," pointing out that "we don’t know if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan created more terrorists than they killed."
After 9/11, Sullivan alleged, George W. Bush "forgot that his first job and oath of office was to protect the Constitution, rather than the United States mainland," and that Bush, in "suspending Habeas Corpus indefinitely," has shown no understanding of the difference between the two. Sullivan expressed profound concern over the breaches of the constitution and immense expansion of executive power under Bush. In the War on Terror, the enemy is a metaphor with no army or any geographic boundaries, which means that the war may continue indefinitely. "If the war never ends," said Sullivan, "these powers are permanent."
Nevertheless, Sullivan made no issue in pointing out that the enemy is "extraordinarily dangerous and lethal," and "potentially apocalyptic" in a world of weapons of mass destruction. He called the pretext for the Iraq war the "most fantastic intelligence failure in the history of the United States," labeling Donald Rumsfeld’s occupation plan "literally insane." Sullivan posited that the United States executive decision to carry out the use of torture in various forms was an "astonishing failure of the United States to uphold its Constitution." The use of torture and the expansion of executive power were an "attack upon the very core of the United States and constitutional liberty," and has been a "much bigger blow to the United States than 9/11 ever was."
Sullivan stated that President Obama has, in his first few days in office, issued numerous executive orders that "gut" the notion that the executive branch is above the law, and that "Obama understands that the Constitution is the final arbiter." This, exclaimed Sullivan, has been an "enormous relief" and the "most profound thing that has happened since last Tuesday." He believed Obama’s biggest challenge would be to find way to "repair the precedent" for the "war crimes" that were "clearly and directly committed by the President and the Vice President." "At what point do our ideals actually endure in the face of catastrophe and carnage?" asked Sullivan, before alleging that no individual be detained indefinitely without due process, and no one ever be tortured. "That’s my standard," he concluded. "Thank you."
In the Q&A section, Sullivan made some powerful and biting comments about Sarah Palin’s candidacy for Vice President. He accused her of being "incapable of telling the truth consistently," or answering basic questions, or governing in a transparent, accountable manner. Sullivan labeled her a "farce" and a "joke" – someone who had "no business" being the Governor of Alaska, let alone Vice President or God forbid, President. Sullivan went on, concluding that any party that nominates someone like her is "not a serious political party, and will lose, and will keep losing, and will deserve to lose."