THE GREAT SHAME: Bush's legacy is our failure

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/18922


THE GREAT SHAME: Bush's legacy is our failure
by Allan Uthman | November 28, 2008



When the networks projected an Ohio win for Obama on November 4th, I counted up the remaining states, and realized that Obama was going to win. Like a lot of people that night, I wanted to celebrate. I gladly turned off the TV and went out to get drunk.

As they were everywhere, people were out in the streets of Buffalo, NY, too that night. Shouting, singing, crying, forming impromptu drum circles and dance troupes. Strangers hugging each other, cars honking as they crawled by—this was unprecedented behavior in the Queen City, where the people generally exude a dull aura of eternal defeat. Maybe this was what it would look like if the Bills actually won a Super Bowl.

Of course, people were celebrating Obama’s victory, but I think the main source of jubilation was that the end of the Bush administration, and Republican rule, was finally in sight. There were many cries of “Obama!” that night, but there were just as many people expressing a superlative relief, like a long over-strained muscle finally relaxing, that our long national nightmare was finally over.

snip//

Bush lied about Iraq; it’s nothing if not clear at this point. And what the hell did we do about it? Bush failed miserably in New Orleans, dashing the image of Republican competence. But what did we do about it? Even now, as Bush’s economic team fools us into pouring an insane, gargantuan amount of money into the largest banks in the world, pulling a classic scare-and-switch tactic we should all be familiar with by now, nobody even murmurs about holding him accountable. As we all hold our breath and wait for Obama to take office, we allow the most craven, criminal administration in American history to keep right on pillaging our laws, our money, and our collective sense of decency right to the end. We, as a nation, are a miserable failure.

It’s just not enough that it will soon be over. It’s not enough that we managed to get through it. It’s not enough that the Republicans are in disarray, apparently headed toward a schism. These people should be in jail. They should serve as an example to all who come after them, that there is only so much corruption, malfeasance, and rank incompetence that this nation will put up with. Instead, their scot-free exit signals the impotence of this country in the face of an all-out hijacking of its government.

So sure, celebrate a victory for relative sanity in Obama’s win. But at the same time, we should be lamenting an all-out defeat for accountability. An eight-year crime wave has swept through the most powerful democracy in the world, and the only people being punished are you and me. And maybe we deserve it, because the true failure is ours.

[Wetzelbill]

1. k and r

[Jack Bone]

2. K&R for an excellent piece! nt

[elleng]

3. Yes, if you think its 'our' failure

that the media is solely owned by bush etc sponsors, and hence feeds us such crap as they do as 'news.'

We've got to get the FCC re-done, and its enabling legislation dramatically changed to include cable jurisdiction, and get on our way so the truth CAN set us free.

[tularetom]

4. I know of approximately 100,000 who aren't responsible for bush

And that's the vast majority of DUers. People around here have been screaming for years that bush, cheney, rumsfeld, rove, and rice should all be removed from office, tried and imprisoned.

If they haven't been it sure isn't our fault. Most of the friends I had in 2000 don't even want to see me coming now because they are so sick of hearing me rant and rave about what a piece a shit they elected. And they now realize I was right they want to avoid me more than ever because I might gloat.

I'm glad he's almost gone but I'm not taking responsibilty for his fuckups.

[trollybob]

5. We deserve it because 60 million of us are complete morons,

i.e., those who voted to re-elect Bush. Why the sudden disapproval of him? It's not like he's any different now than he was four years ago.

[indepat]

6. Must admit to perverse pleasure when seeing a Larry Kudlow-type shilling

RW bullshit and realizing the role RW policies, actions, and wars have had in a two-thirds diminution in the value of GE stock until the recent bounce, notwithstanding what those policies, actions, and wars have done to my own 401(k) which includes GE. :P

edited to change the to in

[olegramps]

7. The Major Failure was the failure of the Fourth Estate

The media totally failed the American people. Instead of doing their job of detailed investigation of the Neo-con administration's run up to war they only repeated the administration's unsubstantiated propaganda. A democracy can not exists without a free press to report the facts.

This administration surpassed the efforts of the most determined and celebrated dictators in silencing the voice of opposition. While ruthless dictators are able to close down the official press, they have never been able to stop clandestine publications that have keep alive the voice of opposition.

This ruthless administration didn't have to close one press office to achieve its goals. They simply black-balled any reporter who dared to ask any probing questions and the press quickly capitulated. The reporters who feared for their jobs if their were black-balled became the tools of the this administration and gladly spread their propaganda with their bosses' blessings.

As Helen Thomas, who was one of the few to speak out, remarked that her comrades had been transformed from watchdogs to lapdogs. This is not restricted to just the run up to the Iraqi war, but is applicably to a number of issues that demanded investigation ranging from unwarranted wire tapping to secret prisons.