Better than Bush!!!

[MannyGoldstein]

I read a number of posts yesterday stating that Holder was a good AG because he was better than Gonzales.

Oh boy!

First off, setting the threshold for "acceptable" at "better than the Bush administration" is flat-out terrifying. There's a lot of space between "Bush" and "decent". Nixon was better than Bush. Reagan was better than Bush.

I want better than better than Bush, much better, and you should too.

Second, which sounds more compelling to Americans come election time?

1. "Bush was worse, you don't want that to happen again!"
2. "We got stuff done and your lives are better, let's keep going!"

This is why the Third Way Enterovirus has such a terrible track record in general elections: "We suck less", their battle cry, just doesn't get the job done. And now we have another election cycle coming up, and "it could be worse" is mostly we have to work with.

So, can y'all do me a solid? Can we banish "better than Bush" from this site, in all its permutations?

(Especially "better than Gonzales". That's just sick.)

[delrem]

1. I hear that this war on Syria is just as legal as W's war on Iraq.

I hear that it has the identical justification/authority.

And oh boy, is this new war expanding FAST!

I hear that Pres. Obama has the authority to fire hellfire missiles from drones, on "signature" targets in countries anywhere in the world, regardless of whether war has been declared. Suffice that upon that authority rests a judgement that all military aged males in the vicinity of a drone strike are "enemy combatants", so justified as having been targeted. I hear that the same authority gives him leave to target US citizens, if desired.
How is that "better than Bush"? How?

[geek tragedy]

2. When was the last time we had a better one?

Problem is people act like only their pet issues count-he didn't drag Cheney out in chains for a show trial, so the work on voting rights doesn't matter.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

3. People died today because of Cheney's war.

People died yesterday because of that illegal war, and more death is scheduled for tomorrow. Kind of curious that you're attempting to reduce these war crimes to "pet issues".

[geek tragedy]

4. Prosecutions that have never happened in US history and

would not have occurred under any attorney general is indeed a pet issue.

LBJ was not prosecuted for Vietnam. Etc etc . Bush/Cheney were pedestrian imperialists by US standards, just especially incompetent ones,

Part of the reason we have had 230 years of peaceful, orderly transitions of power in this country is that the officeholders do not have to choose between staying in power and going to prison for the rest of their lives.

Once presidents start throwing their predecessors in prison, that will inevitably lead down a very, very bad road.

And dare I say that those more worked up by a failure to levy punishment against disfavored persons than about, say, voting rights tend to demonstrate an authoritarian mindset.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

5. I'm an authoritarian because I wanted the Bush Admin charged.

Message received. Jesus.

[geek tragedy]

9. If the focus is on punishing as opposed to protecting the

right to vote or marry . . .

http://www.academia.edu/503991/Authority_and_Punishment_On_the_Ideological_Basis_of_Punitive_Attitudes_towards_Criminals

Seriously, when complaints 1 and 2 are because not enough personal punishment was administered . . .

[BrotherIvan]

8. So the new talking point is

"The smooth transition of power is more important than the law." It is not the first time I've seen it. And it is a stunningly bad excuse.

[Scuba]

16. +1

[AverageJoe90]

6. He was *quite* a bit better than Gonzales, TBH. nt

[Doctor_J]

7. Gonzales was a criminal. The BOG's litmus test for a successful AG is now

"he's not a criminal. And if that's not good enough for you, you're a racist!!!!"

[corkhead]

10. Blue team is telling me that i am either with them or against them

If I am not an obedient member of the blue team, then I must be a trolling member of the red team.

My team "right or wrong" - on both sides. - is exactly why things are so fucked up right now

[MannyGoldstein]

13. What would Joe Strummer do?

Here 'ya go!

?list=PLrNpLntk0nNMDHoqKoaqQGF8SsMgkvQ0g

[obxhead]

11. Of all of your posts.....

Last edited Sat Sep 27, 2014, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

#1

When Bush is the benchmark..... Well fuck it, there's not much of a point anymore.

[Caretha]

12. I'm starting to

feel the same...Oh hell I do feel the same...Fuck it.

[countryjake]

14. "How loooow can you go?"

When I think of Alberto Gonzales, I think of torture.

Images immediately come to mind of bags over prisoners' heads, rendition planes, piles of naked people, water up-the-nose...and beaming American soldiers giving the thumbs-up to it all.

Gonzales committed war crimes, no matter how "quaint" he deemed the Geneva Conventions to be and every politician who allowed such depravity to just disappear into the annals of history is responsible for lowering the collective consciousness of our country.

When I consider what an Attorney General should be, I think in terms of upstanding, outstanding in the field, not ever "better than". Same with a prez.

[Scuba]

15. Kick.