Speechwriter Ted Sorensen, known as the rhetoritician and thinker behind JFK, just wrote his dream speech for the next Democratic nominee, and published it in the Washington Monthly. It's located here. It's a useful speech to read, because it lets us kind of go back in time and see how Democrats we revere - JFK in particular - might have handled today's political crisis. The speech has highs and lows, and Sorensen certainly doesn't shrink from using the word liberal of saying that old weapons systems need to be eliminated. Still, much of it is consumed with the same rhetoric we're hearing from all our candidates, notions about fairness, justice, and international relations. I do want to focus on piece, which we are likely to have to wrestle with.
During these last several years, our nation has been bitterly divided and deceived by illicit actions in high places, by violations of federal, constitutional, and international law. I do not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, now or next year, through continuous investigations, indictments, and impeachments. I am confident that history will hold these malefactors accountable for their deeds, and the country will move on.
Instead, I shall seek a renewal of unity among all Americans, an unprecedented unity we will need for years to come in order to face unprecedented danger.
Shorter Ted Sorensen = elites are above the law. Our problems of triangulation and weakness didn't start with Clinton, and they didn't start with Carter. They started much, much earlier, with anti-Communism and the very first generation of television politicians. And I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that Ted Sorenson is an attorney at Paul, Weiss, which represents Scooter Libby.
As liberals, we have a choice to make when the next administration comes to power. Do we let the lawbreaking, torture, and war crimes to go unpunished so America can 'move on'? This was Clinton's strategy when taking over from Bush in 1993. Or do we push for a truth and reconciliation commission?
I think it's important to start wrestling with these questions now for a very practical reason. America just moved a massive amount of naval power into the Gulf to set ourselves up for a strike on Iran. If Dick Cheney fears that he will go to jail should we attack Iran, we might be able to head this off. If he thinks that Democrats will call for unity and no accountability, then let the missiles fly. I mean, he wants us in Iraq for fifty years. What better way to do that than launch a new war just as a new President is taking office? Unless, you know, there are consequences.