I´m Melting!

The Wicked Witch is disappearing — just not fast enough.

by Alan Bisbort

Source: Hartford Advocate, June 30, 2005.

It's a great moment in a classic film. A frantic Dorothy splashes a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West. The evil witch screams hideously as the water hits her, reducing everyone else into paralyzed silence. As she shrieks, "I'm melting! Meeelting," we are alternately ecstatic at her demise but terrified about what will happen next.

What happens next is the greatest moment in this memorable scene. After Margaret Hamilton disappears into a puddle on the floor, Dorothy and her friends stand down, awaiting their fate. But something wonderful and unexpected occurs. With the wicked witch's demise, her fear- and terror-driven spell has been broken, and the mob's temporary psychosis has been lifted. Instead of the dismal fate they'd presumed — dungeons, torture, executions — Dorothy and her friends are cheered and hailed as heroes. They'd freed the people of Oz from the tyranny of the witch! Hooray!

How did L. Frank Baum so accurately foresee 100 years into the future? When he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 Baum had no way of knowing how profound an impact his charming children's tales would have — due to the 1939 film version, of course. Surely, he never imagined the likes of Mussolini, Hitler, Tojo, Stalin, Pot Pot and Idi Amin roaming the earth. Surely, he never imagined folks like Sen. Joe McCarthy, Rev. Pat Robertson and Father Coughlin roaming the American landscape (Coughlin was a fascist Catholic "radio priest" in the 1930s). And yet, the darker elements in Baum's tales lend them the edge that has proven timeless. You can't have celebrations without also having wicked witches, cataclysms and imperious wizards hiding behind curtains. And that's why his tales perfectly capture the Age Of Bush.

We learned this week that the man behind the curtain is Karl Rove. This unelected White House adviser operates with a dangerously free hand, endangering the country with his chicanery — he, in all likelihood, is responsible for revealing the name of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame to the press — and grievously wounding our democracy. As poll after poll continues to show that Bush and Cheney are melting … meeellting, Rove has ratcheted up the fear factor. Rove's latest ploy, variations on which we will enjoy for many weeks to come, is to imply that "liberals" and Democrats are traitors and cowards. At a fund-raiser in New Jersey last week, he said, "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." He also characterized the remarks of Sen. Richard Durbin — who was, as any sane citizen of a free nation would be, disgusted by reports of Americans torturing and killing prisoners — as giving aid and comfort to terrorists. "Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger," Mr. Rove muttered from behind his curtain. "No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals." There you have it. We're all "liberals" now, even moderates like Durbin. Rove's comments, and the refusal of the White House or the Republican Party leadership to denounce them, recall another great moment in our national "Oz"-fest.

The year was 1952. After months of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's (R-WI) relentless insistence that the government harbored "traitorous" Communists, the tipping point — the bucket of water, the pulling of the curtain — was reached. It came after the elections gave the White House (Eisenhower) and control of the Congress to the Republicans. Sen. McCarthy, already drunk with power, began to really push his crusade. He even went so far as to investigate the U.S. Army for "traitors."

Needless to add, no member of Congress stood up to McCarthy. It took a "Dorothy" named Joseph Welch, a lawyer for the Army, to finally, after a lengthy session with McCarthy, say the words all Americans had longed for someone to say: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness … You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" After that, McCarthy was toast.

We need another Dorothy now.

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reprinted from The Hartford Advocate