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By BuckcuB
George W. Bush, un-president of the United States, is really
Frankenstein's monster.
"Oh baby, this time you've really gone off the deep end, BuckcuB old buddy," I hear you say sorrowfully, dear reader. Not so. Stick with BuckcuB for a few paragraphs, and let him prove his assertion. The 1931 film version of Mary Shelley's terrifying novel--closest of all the "Frankenstein" films to Shelley's intention--opens with a funeral. Amid much weeping, a coffin containing a dead man's body is lowered into the earth and the grave filled in. The man's life is over, and he has been decently buried. The 2000 real-life version also opens with a funeral. George W. Bush has lost the popular vote--by more than a half-million ballots--and the networks declare Florida for Gore. Amid much right-wing weeping, hopes for a Bush victory are lowered into the earth and a decent burial begins. Back to the 1931 film: the funeral procession gone, out of the cemetery mists appears Henry Frankenstein, a brilliant man driven half-mad by his own brilliance and the appalling vanity of his learning and studies. Determined to reverse what has eternally been irreversible--death--Frankenstein and his associate disinter the freshly-buried body. Cut to November 2000. The election over, out of the mists appears William Rehnquist, a brilliant man driven half-mad by his own power and the appalling vanity of his influence and erudition. Determined to reverse what has eternally been irreversible--defeat--Rehnquist and his associates disinter the freshly-defeated Bush.
November 2000: Amid a wild storm of protests and legal briefs, Rehnquist et al elevate the lifeless campaign of George Bush, cobbled together out of the disparate corpses of failed right-wing goals, into the flare of savage controversy, the storm's violence concentrated and focused by the lawyers' arcane legal devices. Recur to 1931's film. The monster is lowered and its hand moves. Actor Colin Clive raises his arms and shrieks, "It's alive! It's ALIVE!!! Now I know what it feels like to be God!" December 2000: The campaign case is lowered out of the storm of controversy, and its power base moves. Rehnquist and his co- conspirators issue a ruling which shrieks, "Bush won! Bush WON!!! Now we know what it feels like to be God!" The result in both the film and the election are the same. What was never meant to be is made to happen, by men whose vanity and capacity lead them to defy a higher power and make their own monstrous creation--because they had the audacity to do so, and without ever asking themselves "What right have I?"
The 1931 Frankenstein climaxes with a scene of angry, horrified villagers, bearing torches and scythes, pursuing the monster to its destruction. We have our own angry, horrified citizens pursuing Bush, protesting at his every public appearance, and protesting too at public appearances by Rehnquist and Scalia. Unfortunately, unlike the Thirties' film, the corporate media is making sure that those scenes of protest end up "on the cutting-room floor" as the saying goes in movie-making. It is telling that 1931's Frankenstein monster fears most of all the glare of fire. For Rehnquist's monster fears too the heat and glare of the flames of protest, and media torches which stray too near to Bush are quickly extinguished. Henry Frankenstein's monstrous creation ends up destroyed by a universal truth: what was not meant to be cannot survive. The animated corpse is not truly alive--it is a counterfeit of life, one man's vainglorious and arrogant attempt to spit in the eye of the universe and claim a power no man can possess: to create life. The Supreme Court's monstrous creation, too, will end up destroyed by that same universal truth: what was not meant to be cannot survive. George Bush's illegitimate presidency is not truly a presidency--it is a counterfeit of office, a right-wing cabal's vainglorious and arrogant attempt to spit in the eye of the electorate and claim a power no American can possess: to defy the will of the people. Beneath the scary makeup and gloomy horror-flick interiors, Frankenstein is essentially a moral tale--there are some acts which are reserved to a higher power, and no man should seek to seize that awesome capacity for himself. And beneath the bland smirks and prestigious White House interiors, the "George Bush presidency" is also essentially a moral tale--there are some acts which are reserved to we the people, and no Court should seek to seize that awesome capacity for itself. |
The Monster's Maker: Chief Justice Rehnquist 
© 1997-2002 BEI