Bush/Nixon

I know that the above picture is... aggressive, but this is not, really, going to be a tirade comparing our most disgraced president to the controversial man who just left office.  They are not really the same in any way, other than infamy, in my opinion.

First though, a little bit about the Academy award nominated Frost/Nixon.  It is fine.  It is entertaining, and occasionally it reaches beyond into moments that are truly extraordinary but they, alas, do not last.  The film is directed rather pedestrianly, but no one can be expected, least of all Ron Howard, to reinvent the wheel with what is essentially a performance piece.  And, yes, that's what it is.  Frank Langella as Richard M. Nixon is sublime, Michael Sheen as David Frost is very good; Rebecca Hall is beautiful, Kevin Bacon is steely, Oliver Platt is comic relief-- everyone does a fine job.   

Instead, this is a post (like a similar post on Gus van Sant's Milk) about how bloody goddamn timely the film is.  The David Frost interviews were the point when an angry, disillusioned America got what they wanted (and deserved) from a president who had tarnished the office, the country, and himself: not necessarily an apology, but at least an admission of guilt.  Afterwards, they were free to move on.

And here we are, in 2009, deserving the same thing from a man guilty of the same sins.  Richard Nixon (according to Howard's film and most widely accepted accounts of him) was an intelligent man, ill-at-ease with himself.  He had the brevity to accept guilt, inwardly at least (the Frost confession is still far from an outright confession), and contained the admirable ability to self-doubt.  George W. Bush is of middling intelligent, filled with bravado-- I doubt he believes he has done anything wrong, nor could he ever admit to doing so.

And that is a shame.  More shameful, however, is that there is no clamor for any such apology for any alleged wrongdoings... or even a clear explanation.  Despite all the blatant lies about such a wide range of things and all the lives ruined because of said lies, no one seems to care... It's as if the last eight years, with all their horrendous nonsense, were just one of those things.  And, I suppose, it is-- in the modern age of American and world politics-- but only because we allow it to.

I suppose that John F. Kennedy was the last time America actually believed in any of it's leaders (of course, I could be wrong-- maybe we've always mistrusted and blindly accepted, from Washington and Jefferson through the modern day-- maybe we've always elected shepherd instead of Commanders in Chief and history has convinced us otherwise) then he was shot and we were given Johnson and his Vietnam fiasco followed by the Nixon scandals.  Behold, the fathers of American cynicism, producing their heirs in Reagen, Clinton and the Bushes.  Is Obama any better?  Theoretically, a week in, he seems honest anyway, which is refreshing change.

Yes, I know that Bush will never apologize or even admit any wrongdoings in his eight years in office-- he will ride horses and drink O'Douls content with his legacy.   America needed to heal after Watergate-- we demanded something from Nixon, he replied, and left us with bitter scars.  I think we need to heal again after eight years of executive misuse-- yet we demand nothing from Bush, he acts accordingly, and leaves us with open wounds.