Mug shot of Jeffrey Dahmer taken immediately after his 1991 arrest by the Milwaukee Police Departmentby Gaius PubliusShort and impossibly ugly. To lack a conscience is to lack any inner sense of what's right and wrong. In extreme situations, the medical condition is described as psychopathy or sociopathy. Jeffrey Dahmer (pictured above) was conscienceless. He trapped, killed and ate people without remorse. He caused great harm because it pleased him to do so.Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men and boys. Richard Nixon, John Ehrlichman and the team around them did much worse. Ehrlichman and Nixon destroyed the lives of more than two generations of Americans, of millions, because it gave them a political advantage to do so.Dan Baum, in a recent article about the politics of drug prohibition for Harpers, interviewed top Nixon aide John Ehrlichman. He quotes Ehrlichman as telling him this (my emphasis):
“You want to know what this [the war on drugs] was really all about? ... The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Did we know we were lying? Of course we did.Here's how that part of the conversation ended:
I must have looked shocked. Ehrlichman just shrugged. Then he looked at his watch, handed me a signed copy of his steamy spy novel, The Company, and led me to the door.
This is a master example of the "say anything, do anything to win" mentality. It's conscienceless. And when its actions do this much damage, it goes by an even worse name. Did Jeffrey Dahmer do more damage than John Ehrlichman? A number equivalent to Dahmer's victims could fit in your living room. A number equivalent to Ehrlichman's would need a major city to hold them.Conscienceless. At least Dahmer looked at his victims. Ehrlichman may never have met even one of his. I know this is not an all-or-nothing measurement, that there are degrees. But still, when I see this behavior — repeated and apparently conscienceless lying to gain political advantage and advancement — it frightens me. I don't know where the limits are. I see more of that today, this electoral season, than I want to. Did we know we were lying? Of course we did. Blue America has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. He's had a very good run recently, but he still needs a major push.
- Time to contribute?
- Time to phone-bank for Bernie?
- Time to make sure all of your friends come out to vote, especially in Wisconsin?
Seems so to me. And thanks!GP