Last time we played The 1966 Game we left you with a poser.
Ramsey Clark is now a political synonym for "batshit crazy." Since his time as Attorney General, in the last years of the Johnson Administration, he has been busy defending the undefendable. Most recently he became a defense attorney for Saddam Hussein.
What Clark represents, in terms of the larger themes of history, is excess. His father was a Supreme Court Justice, Tom Clark, appointed by FDR. He was brought up to believe the myths of his father’s time. These were the liberal myths of the New Deal, of the Civil Rights movement, of the Warren Court.
People forget, today, how popular bumper stickers reading "Impeach Earl Warren" were in the 1960s. Decisions we have come to take for granted — Brown vs. Board, Gideon vs. Wainwright, Miranda vs. U.S. — were highly controversial at the time. And it became a central mission of the Goldwater movement to see these precedents overturned.
This is now in the process of happening. Only now, 38 years into the Nixon era, is it starting to happen. This was the intent of the Founders, to slow the pace of legal change, and to give new precedents time to do their work, outside the political process.
So who is Ramsey Clark now?
Alberto Gonzalez has been raised on the Bush myth. He is dedicated to it, absolutely, just as Ramsey Clark ws to the Roosevelt myth.
For Gonzaelz that myth is embodied in the person of George W. Bush, a man from his own state of Texas. Just as, for Clark, it was embodied in the person of Lyndon B. Johnson, also from his home state of Texas.
Clark sacrificed his own father’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court to serve his President. Tom Clark’s resignation led directly to the appointment of Thurgood Marshall. Gonzalez, in turn, sacrificed his own ambition for the Supreme Court to become Bush’s Attorney General. There he serves with utmost faithfulness, justifying every outrage, stonewalling every question, and claiming legitimacy for every power grab by his political God.
This may be considered a tentative call, although the parallels in this case are eerie. You will note that Clark joined the Johnson Administration in 1967, while Gonzalez become Attorney General in 2005, the equivalent (in this game) to 1965.
No matter. Nothing is perfect. We’re looking for rough equivalents. History never repeats itself exactly. The point of this game, however, is that patterns repeat, that there are close parallels, and these give us the tools to look into the future, not as books like Megatrends did, in a straight line, but in a wave, to see change as it approaches.
If the patterns of history repeat, Alberto Gonzalez is in for a rough life.
Having fun yet? Let’s continue.
There would be many political upsets in 1966, as veterans of the New Deal fell to business-oriented Republicans. The winners were not, by and large, Goldwater men, but businessmen (like Romney in Michigan) recruited to the party by the excesses of the Johnson Administration. It was felt, on their election, that these men would go on to big careers. Most didn’t, because they were, in the end, out of step with the emerging Thesis, the Thesis of Conflict represented by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and brought to excess by George W. Bush.
Let’s look for one of these upset winners for next week. Who’s Chuck Percy now?
These references to political history cycling like this, with modern people filling the same or similar roles as other people from previous cycles, is very reminiscent of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
These references to political history cycling like this, with modern people filling the same or similar roles as other people from previous cycles, is very reminiscent of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.