Vermont View: Monster chickens are coming home to roost

By Scott Thompson, Rutland Herald

News from the wider world rolls in these days like the rumble of distant lightning strikes. If not for the skyrocketing price of fuel, which gives a faint idea of what it must be like to live in an Argentina or Zimbabwe, the intense and fleeting beauty of summer in Vermont would make the news seem even more unreal than it does.

But in the past few weeks especially, what sounds like far-off thunder turns out to be something more like the flapping of some very big, bad chickens coming home to roost, along with the hooting of the chicken farmers trying to shoo them off again. Here are just a few of the chickens: Rep. Kucinich's presidential impeachment resolution, the Supreme Court's anti-Guantanamo decision, South Korea's government being destabilized by mass demonstrations against a trade deal that would reopen its market to U.S. beef, the Taliban making lots of trouble yet again, and a muddled good news-bad news stasis in Iraq.

And here are a few instances of what the chicken farmers appear to be up to: Bush's renewed push to expand domestic surveillance and indemnify the National Security Agency's corporate telecom partners, his and McCain's call to open up protected areas to exploitation by oil companies, U.S. negotiation of a long-term "status of forces" agreement with Baghdad, and arm-twisting of allies to pony up more troops for Afghanistan.

Kucinich of Ohio alleges something very big, a constitutional crisis in effect: the over-extension and abuse of executive power. For many Vermonters who supported impeachment at town meetings past, these articles must seem long overdue. For those who have to tack and beat into the prevailing political winds — our congressional delegation, for example — they are an untimely and unwelcome distraction. There are also people of good will who consider the action wholly baseless.

Regardless, it points up a general rule of government: The dumber the issue, the more passion and time is expended over it. By the same token, the more serious and far-reaching the issue, the harder it can be to get anyone to deal with it. The rule explains why a vapid sex scandal can lead so easily to impeachment proceedings, while an accusation of systematic encroachment on the U.S. Constitution sends so many people scrambling to find ways to sidetrack it.

If the impeachment clause in the Constitution indeed fails to work as it should in the hurly-burly of real life, then perhaps the Constitution could use some legitimate amending. Ancient Athens had an intriguing practice called "euthynae," which required senior public officials to "present their accounts" to public auditors once they had finished their term of office. The review was mainly about money, but other kinds of complaints could also be heard. As things stand, former U.S. presidents ride off into the sunset, establish the shrines known as "presidential libraries," and wear the aureole of elder statesman for the rest of their days. The evaluation of their performance as president awaits the "judgment of history," which usually takes considerably longer than the statute of limitations. An American "euthynae" could let us condemn abuses, remedy injustices and set up clear expectations for the conduct of the incoming administration, without subjecting our political system to the convulsions of an impeachment trial.

But it will not necessarily save us from the monster chickens that we hatch ourselves. The economy is a case in point. Once upon a time, we Americans were renowned for valuing practice over theory. But over time we grew as rigidly doctrinaire in our own way as our old Marxist adversaries had been in theirs. Those who worship at the feet of the "free market" and exult during the fat years should not be surprised when the idol demands its periodic human sacrifice. Market forces resemble gravity or any other physical force: They must be deliberately harnessed in order to serve human purposes. A market that is subject to the rule of law, where competition is fairly and intelligently umpired, will invariably outperform an unregulated market. Sub-prime mortgages, real estate, health care, oil, airlines, power, telecommunications and many more on anyone's list of market failures bear witness to the destructive anarchy of a so-called "free" market.

Winston Churchill turned Shakespeare's comic line "some have greatness thrust upon them" into something serious – but he cut a corner when he did it. He would have done better to say "the possibility of greatness." Many of us, perhaps all of us, will at some moment in our lives have the possibility of greatness thrust upon us. The moment is usually private, a point of peculiar intensity or crisis.

The moment of Sept. 11, 2001, was an especially public catastrophe where the possibility of greatness was thrust upon us in the midst of shock, fury and heartbreak. We yearned for a leader to guide us back to the proper course of our national destiny. We were led instead into a wasteland of war, torture, brutalization, broken friendships and creeping impoverishment. These chickens are vultures.

No president can be anything more than a chief public servant. We hire him or her by election to manage for our common benefit the vast apparatus of government that we have created. But the president does not govern. We, the people, govern ourselves through our designated instruments. We, the people, must also lead if we are to restore ourselves to the place we once held in the continuum of history and in the hearts of people around the world.

Scott Thompson is a retired U.S. diplomat who lives in Calais.