I know it’s possible to corrupt the government and the American people even more than Bush and Cheney managed to corrupt them, but it’s hard not to give them a 10 out of 10. And, if you think about it, we had some serious problems before Bush and Cheney were selected. For example, they weren’t elected. For another, Joe Lieberman was.
What keeps me going is that we are so far improved from where we were. Yet, it’s hard to exaggerate how much farther we have to go or just how extensively Bush and Cheney screwed things up.
For one thing, they turned the Republican Party into a gibbering bunch of fools who are simultaneously frothing with hate and piddling themselves with fear. Who’s afraid of a shackled terrorist in a Supermax prison? Seriously. How did we get so many cowards in this country?
How did we get so many cowards in this country?
By celebrating ignorance over intellect.
By valuing perception over reality.
By elevating might over right.
By allowing lies to go unchallenged in the mainstream media.
By forsaking the founding principles which made this country a unique entity in this world for so long.
By believing the lie that because we are Americans that we are better and wiser than everyone else in the world and therefore what is done in our name is, by virtue of that fact, always right and noble.
Wonderful answer, Mike, you make all INFT’s proud.
TV is to blame for so many problems in american society, including the trivialization of everything that matter and the sensationalization of everything that doesn’t.
I don’t know how much more ridiculous FOX News can get.
it’s not just fox.
it’s the whole fuckin’ thing.
Very well said, BooMan, as always.
Awesome, Brendan, awesome.
For one thing, they turned the Republican Party into a gibbering bunch of fools who are simultaneously frothing with hate and piddling themselves with fear.
Don’t forget the Democratic party. They have their share. Lieberman, Specter, Bayh and Ben Nelson come to mind immediately.
While the damage that Bush/Cheney have done is extensive, IMO the most damage is how Obama has made FISA, torture, government secrecy, etc., his own, setting EXTREMELY dangerous precedents when he had the opportunity to repudiate criminal actions. Obama has allowed the previous administration to co-op the present one. And in many ways it is completely voluntary.
While Bush did damage, it is Obama that is making the damage permanent. Obama is on the verge of breaking his constitutional vows AND continuing/committing war crimes. So which is worse. the original crime, or the person that makes those crimes ‘OK’ forever?
Bush is an idiot who is so stupid he does not know any better, Cheney is an evil old bastard who pisses his pants in fear when an arab says ‘BOO!’. But what is Obama’s excuse? He knows exactly what he is doing (he is a constitutional lawyer, for god’s sake!).
So the greatest damage that Bush/Cheney have done is lead Obama to destroy his credibility. And he will rue the day he did not step up and do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing.
It is simply impossible to describe how fucked we are in this country.
nalbar
Yes, when Obama supported Telecom immunity and FISA II, I reluctantly bought into the argument that it was necessary to get elected. There is no necessity now. Either Obama doesn’t care about Western ideals at all, or he wants the power more.
This reminds me so much of the last days of the Roman Republic.
The most disturbing aspect of the continued fallout from the “Torture Years” is the inability or unwillingness of both the Obama crowd and many of his supporters (some on the so-called “left”, it must be said) to actively confront the issue by getting out in front of this massive snowball careering downhill fast and demand truth and accountability for all the sins of the “dark side”, whose massive transgressions are now fervently being defended by Dick Cheney et al. We hear that “this has already been investigated”, and that “people have been punished”, and “we’re looking forward, not backward”…yadda-yadda-blah-blah. But the worst arguments made – principally by Obama apologists – is that full-blown investigations and/or prosecutions would “divide the country” and become a “major distraction for Obama’s ‘game-changing’ domestic agenda”…and like that. Well, for God’s sake, what do those people call the huge and extensive expansion of the war in Afpak???? If there is ANYTHING that has the potential to utterly disrupt Obama’s 1st-term priorities at home it is the ruinous escalation of military action both in Afghanistan and in the tribal-administered districts of Pakistan. Nearly a quarter-million people have been displaced throughout the Swat Valley as a consequence of the US-promoted Pakistani “offensive against the Taliban”, US cruise missiles are raining down all along the Afghan-Pakistan border, and tens of thousands of US military are about to be employed round Helmand and Kandahar provinces, and probably further south into Baluchistan (with the tacit “approval” of the Pakistan government). Compared to what “damage” further revelations of torture would reveal, the wars in Iraq and Afpak are collectively heading the US toward a real national disaster, for which Obama and his generals simply haven’t as yet got a strategy, “winning” or otherwise.
Well written and thought out and very, very disturbing. I think, perhaps, Archimedes39, our beloved nation is like a gigantic bowling ball careening wildly down hill smashing whatever and whomever gets in its way. And, inside this rolling piece of destruction is a radioactive core which, if ignited, might take out much of our planet.
These are perilous times, indeed. May our leaders perceive the dangers and lead us diligently to safety.
May all sentient beings find harmony and happiness.
We’re having a tough time getting foreign nations to accept even those Gitmo residents who are citizens of their countries. It looks like all of the “easy” persons were freed long ago. The ones left are actual terrorists, hardened criminals, or have been so unhinged by years of brutality that nobody wants to see them freed.