Once upon a time, there was a phrase that truly was cringe-worthy. It was as trite as when someone would say (as if it was profound) “we don’t want to sit around singing Kumbaya.”

The phrase is “they’re just being Good Germans.” It’s a phrase that was hideously overused during the Vietnam War (for those of us who remember) and now in the Iraq war….which has shaped up as this generation’s Vietnam war.

But New York Times columnist Frank Rich has now made it legitimate again in a column that is that asks readers to stop and see how far the United States has come — or fallen. His use of the words “Gestapo tactics” and “Good Germans” will be red flags to some, but he’s clearly speaking about a descent of long-held American values here and not just throwing lash-out adjectives around.

And, indeed, if you look at Point A as where we were X number of years ago in terms of American steadfast values and Point B where we are now, there is a perceptible shift – not one that has come with any big announcement, but via a series of teeny baby steps taken as if no steps were taken at all.

The thrust of his piece is at its end:

Our moral trajectory over the Bush years could not be better dramatized than it was by a reunion of an elite group of two dozen World War II veterans in Washington this month. They were participants in a top-secret operation to interrogate some 4,000 Nazi prisoners of war. Until now, they have kept silent, but America’s recent record prompted them to talk to The Washington Post.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an M.I.T. physicist whose interrogation of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, took place over a chessboard. George Frenkel, 87, recalled that he “never laid hands on anyone” in his many interrogations, adding, “I’m proud to say I never compromised my humanity.”

Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.

The beginning is where he also notes a common administration response and the reason he felt this column’s time had come:

“BUSH lies” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves.

Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President Bush gave his standard response: “This government does not torture people.” Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of “torture” is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent.

And that has been a modus operandi not just of the administration, but going back to Mr. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign.

When he ran against Arizona Senator John McCain, who was widely seen then as a reformer, Mr. Bush reformulated his campaign at one time and appeared behind signs that said he was “reformer with results.” But after Mr. Bush was elected, it turned out some of those reforms were not such great reforms after all.

Administration environmental policies have been given names to sound like great environmental policies, but check with any number of prestigious, independent environmental organizations and they’ll tell you that the administration is considered to have one of the poorest records on environmental issues. Similarly, the administration insists it is not saying Saddam Hussein was involved with 911 but it has repeatedly suggested just that even as it denied it was doing so.

It’s the use of language to recast and deny. But if previous definitions were used or not shifted and tossed away, it is clear on several fronts that this administration has made many significant shifts which claiming it was doing no such thing. Rich writes:

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

Still, the drill remains the same. The administration gives its alibi (Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples). A few members of Congress squawk. The debate is labeled “politics.” We turn the page.

There has been scarcely more response to the similarly recurrent story of apparent war crimes committed by our contractors in Iraq. Call me cynical, but when Laura Bush spoke up last week about the human rights atrocities in Burma, it seemed less an act of selfless humanitarianism than another administration maneuver to change the subject from its own abuses.

Laura Bush’s comments and motivations? That’s up for debate and no one — Rich included — can say they know she was trying to change a subject. Perhaps this happened: perhaps she WAS outraged by it. Rich almost undermines his argument by falling into the discredit-you-opponents trap.

But the larger issue in America is that our goal posts keep changing.

And how can they change so easily?

Once upon a time there were people in both parties who were staunch partisans but had ideals that they would not toss away just to win an election or cling to power.

These ideas were steadfast and were the reason WHY they belonged to X or Y party — and the reason they were so proud to be Americans.

Those of us who have spent years of our lives overseas (in my case India, Bangladesh, Spain and covering parts of Mexico) often ran into heated criticisms and outright denunciations of the United States but we also know that the United States has long been a country considered by many in the world to be perhaps a CUT ABOVE the rest due to certain values.

These values have also been a selling point for the United States abroad. But now some of the values are falling by the wayside and, as Rich notes, many Americans really don’t seem to care.

We are now in an era when politics to many seems to be less about policy and fundamental values than defending your own party’s political players, no matter what they do.

Longtime principles are tossed out as quickly as used Kleenex. The mental adjustments are made (this MUST be right because the administration says so and because this or that talk show host or blog says so). Old values become inoperative and the new values (or non-values) are rationalized and quickly become the norm.

What’s the solution? Congress? Congress can only be part of it. And clamoring for one political party to do something about it won’t cut it, either.

It’s about Americans who are now willing to let a government or party change the rules of the game or throw away longstanding ideals and values and just go along with it. It’s about whether politics means more than just making sure your side gets in and stays in.

They used to say about conservative icon Barry Goldwater: “He’d rather be right than be President.”

Politicos of both parties seems as if they’d all rather be president — and worry about being right later on.

But so do many Americans. Torture? Many who insist what’s going on now isn’t torture KNOW in their hearts it is torture but that’s not what “their team” says so they’ll insist it isn’t and go after those who say it is.

It’s not about Americans being “Good Germans.”

It’s about Americans being bad — and negligent — trustees of long held, long cherished values.

Values that generations of American died to protect — and to perpetuate.

BUT THAT’S OUR VIEW. HERE IS A CROSS SECTION OF OTHER VIEWPOINTS (these are excerpts so click on links to read entire posts):

–Newsbusters:

It’s not as if Frank Rich has a deep and abiding hatred of his nation’s leadership, or contempt for his fellow Americans. It’s just that he accuses the Bush administration of using tactics worthy of the Gestapo — the Nazi secret police headed by Heinrich Himmler — and his fellow Americans of being like citizens of Hitler’s Germany who turned a blind eye to the atrocities in their midst.

….I believe that when the history of this war is written, it will be seen that our nation waged it in accordance with some of the highest ethical standards ever observed in a major conflict. Yet Frank Rich paints our government as adopting Nazi tactics, and average Americans as akin to passive supporters of Hitler’s regime. Were it not ever-so-gauche to do so, you might call that unpatriotic.

–Michael van der Galien:

All the exaggerations aside, I’m with American liberals on this one: I won’t compare anyone to Hitler - because Hitler was truly evil, not someone who simply went a bit too far in his desire to protect his people - but the treatment of prisoners is truly embarrassing to the US. Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, etc. have done great damage to America’s image and rightfully so. Personally I don’t understand why this hasn’t caused more outrage in the US than it has done. This is one of the major weaknesses of Bush and this is one of the errors the US has made. Enhanced interrogations techniques shouldn’t be used. Not only do experts point out that they’re not all that effective, it’s also inhumane to use them. Even the worst criminals in human history should be treated in line with human rights. All of them should have a fair trial, all of them should be treated humanely.

–The Heretik (who always has incredible original graphics on his posts):

Good Americans, we don’t torture. So our leaders say. But if we believe that, more than the dignity of a detainee’s body is lost. The bones of our civilization are broken and our morality evaporates. We have acted better when things were far worse.

–TMV coblogger Pete Abel at his excellent blog Central Sanity:

Rich seems to suggest that “the war’s last supporters” are synonymous with those who would excuse and/or enable torture. That implication is neither fair nor accurate.

Among others, I both condemn torture and support the mission to stabilize Iraq. I agree wholeheartedly with those like Rich and Andrew Sullivan who have rejected the Administration’s repeated attempts to liberalize definitions of what does and does not constitute torture. I further believe American leaders and citizens must take the moral high ground on these subjects, consistently, without wavering. And we do just that when we both stand against torture and advocate the prevention of the massacre in Iraq that would be prompted by a too-soon withdrawal of American forces.

–Rhymes With Right:

Frank Rich can be officially dismissed as a serious commentator on the war (not that he ever really credibility) after this column today…..This is the classic reductio ad Hitlerum intended to cut off all debate or discussion — and as such, as per common application of Godwin’s Law, Mr. Rich loses.

–The American Street:

Not all of us will be guilty of benign neglect. I believe the majority of the citizenry still stands for the rule of law and wants to restore legitimacy to our government and restore our nation’s values to one of clear, unbending principles.

I don’t care what party you belong to. Are you with the good of humanity or are you against it? There is no neutral position, no escape. Answer the question of whether our America, our democracy will exist. Or whether you surrender it and create an inferior second rate country in its place.

–Flopping Aces shows Al Qaeda photos of terrorist torture techniques and writes:

Frank Rich, the always hyperventilating liberal, is at it again today in this column inside the New York Times. As usual with most of the far left he calls Bush another Hitler, and the CIA his Gestapo. This time he also calls those Americans who do nothing about the Bush Administration’s use of interrogation techniques “good Germans.”

….These are the same kind of liberals who believe putting panties on one head is “torture”, and Mr. Rich also obviously believes sleep deprivation is “torture” because he can cite cases where the Germans used that technique also. Well whoopdidoo…..Do these liberals really believe that a hard core al-Qaeda agent is just going to sit down and tell us everything because we were super nice to them? Gave them some cookies and warm milk? It appears they do.

–Say Anything:

Op-ed columnist Frank Rich’s article entitled,”The Good ‘Germans’ Among Us” makes me want to bury my head in shame for what my country has done in Iraq. If this article does not move you, nothing will.

–Arkansas Politics Blog:

When I started to read Frank Rich’s latest piece my skin got cold. He was comparing my country and my fellow Americans to the good Germans…the Germans that turned a blind eye and professed ignorance of there Gestapo and what was happening in their country. And as I got further into what Rich was saying I realized he was right. The damage this administration has done to our country is stunning and as Rich explains, we all have to share in what has happened to this once great country. I will add, that there is no other country on this earth, that when we set our hearts and minds to fixing something…we can do it. The question is…are we willing?

–Sister Toldjah:

Rich is another in a long list of liberals whose perspective doesn’t extend beyond the inauguration of President Bush in January 2001. It almost makes me wish that time machines actually existed, time machines that could accommodate a large number of people, so we could encourage the numerous liberal columnists, journalists, and “scholars,” among other deluded lefties, who have asserted for years that this administration is essentially a modern day American version of Nazi Germany and that our troops are supposedly merely mindless followers, to travel back to that time period in history, and have them attempt to report from the front lines what they’re observing about Hitler’s regime.

That is, of course, assuming they wouldn’t be discovered first by the Gestapo.