Of a Bad President and ‘Good Germans’: Our Long National Nightmare Continues
Even in the seventh year of the Age of Bush, I still don’t want to believe that my country is being led by an intellectual, ethical and moral lightweight in the thrall of dangerous power mongers whose views are inimical to what my mother told me that the U.S. of A. is supposed to stand for.
Then I wake up and realize that Our Long National Nightmare rages on.
I also have come to understand something else of perhaps greater consequence. I’ll cut right to the chase for those of you who won’t read the entire post, let alone the snappy joke at the end.
George Bush and his Merry Bunch of Enablers deserve the lion’s share of the blame for these toxic times, but let’s reserve plenty of blame for a feckless news media, a Supreme Court newly packed with justices who are conservative except when it comes to activism, a compliant Congress and emergent Democratic majority that has talked the talk but largely failed to walk the walk.
But you, my fellow American, share a big dollop of blame as well.
That is unless you speak out at forums like this one, write to your congressfolk, show up at the rare demonstration or plan to vote in the next election and encourage others, especially those who aren’t registered, to do so. Praying for America’s salvation also counts, even if you don’t do it in front of others.
But while one or more of the above certainly disqualifies you as a silent lamb by my calculus, doing nothing qualifies you as a “Good German,†as Frank Rich puts it so powerfully. Why? Because we are inching ever closer to the shocking realization that analogies to the silent citizens of the Third Reich no longer seem so extreme.
The typical response of Bush sycophants has been to accuse people like myself of suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome. But with the destruction that the president has wrought as obvious as the nose on your face and his hard-core supporters dwindling to a lonely few, that pejorative seems as quaint as an archaic expression like “Gag me with a spoon.”
Let’s briefly recap some of the highlights of Year Seven . . .
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.
FYI, I plan to post here tomorrow on the appropriateness of using Nazi analogies.
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6 Responses to “Of a Bad President and ‘Good Germans’: Our Long National Nightmare Continues”
[...] Clark Of a Bad President and ‘Good Germans’: Our Long National Nightmare Continues » This Summary is from an article posted at The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news [...]
Shaun – Let me add to your list an issue that has been bothering me for several years – American’s use of Unlawful Combatants. The LA Times has a good article this morning on the implications of using Blackwater and other security contractors.
LA Times article
Shaun- good post- and as a fellow BDS sufferer, I’ve got to agree with you all the way on this one!
Great post Shaun. There is hope yet as long as voices of reason like yourself still rages on. We need more Peter Finches in the media AND government.
Write your local reps and also tell them NOT to have Blackwater train your police department.
You make a good argument to which I largely agree, but with a cautionary note.
Those of us who criticize the administration and its apologists should be wary of falling into the trap of mimicking their tactics. We should not automatically embrace a position just because it tisn’t Bush’s which would be the mirror image of what we oppose.
On the question of BW and the like, for example, it’s a mistake to throw the whole issue inot one box labeled NO. What are the alternatives?
One alternative is to maintain a vastly expanded military, which might just necessitate renewal of the draft system. What would be the consequences in cost as well as policy of that? At the very least, there should be viable alternatives to propose and examine. Saying NO is just the beginning of the disussion, and it should not be taken as the conclusion. Some serious thinking needs to happen between NO and YES.
My biggest beefs with BW is that they lack accountability to anyone, its hard to get a handle on how often they have fired on Iraqis without provocation, and they are another huge no-bid contractor with big political connections to the Bush administration. I’m also appalled that Bush seemed to know nothing about how they operate, and Congress was equally ignorant (though at least they attempted oversight).