Why we can't wait for 2008

[FightingIrish]

Imagine sitting in a theater when a fire breaks out. Half of the people get up and flee the inferno, the other half sit contentedly watching the movie as the flames engulf the entire room. It’s hard not to sense the same surreal lack of logic as the Bush administration methodically destroys our once great nation while his supporters seem oblivious to the steady pace of our decline.

Unless you were able to cash in on the tax cuts for the very wealthy or believe that the pious president is doing God’s work by commingling religion and government, you probably cannot name an area where the administration has not taken us backward. Indicators like the floundering stock market, the soaring deficits and the climbing body counts in Iraq are quantifiable measures of a failed presidency. The erosion of our personal freedom, the ascendancy of corruption in government and the destruction of the image of America as a paragon of freedom and justice in the world are more subjective but equally telling signs that we have been headed in the wrong direction since Bush was handed the presidency. The government’s shameful response to recent natural disasters and refusal to confront looming environmental catastrophe are colossal failures of the most basic purpose for which we have formed a federal government.

Even if his five years in office had not been marked by one dismal failure after another, it would be hard for a reasonable person to admire a man so lacking in honesty and integrity as George Bush. His carefully scripted and staged appearances with selected and screened audiences of nauseating sycophants are a metaphor for his lack of courage and substance. A president who has demonstrated so much contempt for the law and for the our elected representatives in congress is a threat to our chosen political system. A leader who surrounds himself with incompetent cronies and readily praises and rewards their repeated failures is no leader at all.

For all the obvious failings of the man and his administration, his faithful are unwavering in their support and their defense of the indefensible. That is what is so frightening about our current situation. When Richard Nixon’s treachery was unmasked and the folly of his pursuit of victory in Vietnam was exposed, the American people and the American media responded as they should have and drove him from office. For the most part the media has failed us this time. Even some of Bush’s most outspoken critics in congress are telling us that it is best to tough it out for three more years while the president most deserving of impeachment in our history advances his extreme agenda and continues his failing policies. After two elections that have shaken the faith of most Americans in the electoral process, waiting patiently for the next opportunity for a stolen presidential election hardly seems rational.

As we approach the mid-term elections we should be making impeachment of Bush and Cheney the central issue in every house and senate race across the country. No incumbent of either party who has stood by and let this happen to our country deserves to return to congress regardless of their seniority. The very first congress had no prior experience and we managed to prevail. Let us have no misgivings about cleaning house if that is what it takes to restore our democracy.

[liberalitch]

1. i agree,... that is why in nov. 2006 we need to get a....

congress that not only impeach but convict

[FogerRox]

2. "Why we can't wait for 2008"

because 2006 comes 2 years before 2008 . . . ?