1 Boring Old Man

Of course, that only begs the question of how the country was so easily duped, not once, but through two elections and repeatedly as the regime conned the Congress and the public into supporting every one of the policy failures and catastrophes he now leaves for us and his successor. After all, a democracy may occasionally elect a fool, but if it is paying attention, it is not supposed to keep doing so or keep ratifying his foolish policies.

I have serious doubts whether the America I once believed in will ever exist again (did it ever?). I simply don’t accept Rich’s tonic that once the abominable Bush/Cheney regime is gone, America can recover from their legacy.

The reason is that the legacy is not just what they’ve done to Iraq, or Pakistan, or Palestine or how badly they’ve bungled the economy or government regulation of everything government is supposed to oversee. The worst part of the legacy is what they’ve done to us, as citizens, and to our concept of what America stands for, of what self governance means.

The Bush/Cheney regime used unilateral executive power to dismantle much of the Constitution. But with little dissent and much cheering from the media, our elected Congress effectively ratified virtually every abrogation, from unlimited force authorizations to the Military Commission Act to the gutting of FISA to the moral neutering of the Department of Justice.

It was our elected representative who failed to take a single effective action to hold the regime accountable for its multiple, blatant crimes; it was our media who blessed these actions; and it was we who voted these same people back into office, including a new President and Vice President who helped sanction some of these abuses…

I’ll admit to being more than a little sick about it myself. Back in 2004-2005 when the sickness grabbed me, I placed the blame squarely on the Religious Right. Blinded by a couple of monocular views, they elected and re-elected the Bush Administration, knowing nothing of what they were doing to us. They didn’t have a clue what Bush and Cheney stood for, and even less of an idea of how they were being used by Karl Rove and associates to empower the immoral people they put into office. My anger at the Christian Right remains, but I have additional thoughts about it now.

I don’t think that there’s ever been an Administration like the Bush Administration, at least not in my lifetime. We’ve had a sick President [Nixon], a misguided President [LBJ – Gulf of Tonkin], a silly, senile President [Ronald Reagan], and a Philanderer [Bill Clinton]. But I don’t recall us ever having an Administration like this one. Bush and Cheney did not believe in the American system of government. And I don’t think that we’ve ever had to deal with that before. George Bush actually said it in an outburst:

I’m disappointed in the Religious Right and the other Conservative forces that looked the other way while Bush and Cheney basically officiated an oligarchy. And I’m disappointed with the middle Americans who went along with this kind un-Ame – though I wonder if either election was honestly won. And I’m disappointed in our team [Left, Progressives, Democrats, Constitutionalists, etc.] for allowing all of this to happen. But, even with all of that, I now put the major burden of blame squarely on the shoulders of George W. Bush.

I can live with his being Conservative. I can even get with the fact that he’s not very smart. But he was the decider. He’s the one that signed the orders, picked his Cabinet, gave Addington and Cheney the reins. His decisions were flip, irresponsible, and uninformed by the Constitution he swore to uphold. He treated our government like it was a great big joke. When I saw Michael Moore’s Farenheit 911, there was a scene where he made some statement about the war and our troops to the camera, then turned with a grin and said, "Now watch this drive" as he teed off a golf shot. I think that’s how he approached the whole Presidency.