An astute reader of this blog may have caught onto a shift in the rhetoric here. When I started this blog a little more than a year ago, I frequently harangued against the lawless and corrupt Bush administration's policies. While this is obviously still the case (what sane person could do otherwise?), more recently I've shifted to criticizing "our government" for the various outrages being perpetrated rather than singling out Bush and his henchmen.
Why? Because the publicly available evidence increasingly shows that our country's "opposition party" is equally to blame.
Pretty words are great. I enjoy them. I do, however, enjoy them somewhat less when they are used to perpetrate a fraud on the audience.
Throughout the course of human history, dictators, tyrants, criminals, and other evildoers have stood before their constituencies and uttered pretty words while they and their ilk were acting -- just out of public view -- in the most heinous and destructive fashion. This is axiomatic.
But we don't expect that here, do we? Not, anyway, from our precious protectors of freedom and goodness, those ostensibly opposed to the malevolent Bushies. Our president has been unwavering in stating publicly that "America doesn't torture." All the while, torturing. Our opposition party steadfastly proclaims that it "will not stand for torture." All the while, knowing about the ongoing torture, failing to object, allowing it, making it possible (i.e., standing for it).
Forgive me if I fail to see any meaningful distinction here.
The plain fact of the matter is that our government tortures those people it deems to be our enemies. Our leaders know this, and support it. All of them.
Should this be so? Is it right? Is it a good idea? I, for one, can't say with 100% certainty. My conscience tells me No. But my conscience has been wrong before. But what I can say with certainty is that it is inarguably wrong and bad for a country's government to lie to its citizens about a matter of such importance.
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I can't put my thoughts around the whole crime. But I will make a weak and brief attempt. I believe that there is no longer accountability and the checks and balances are skewered in such a way that ultimately ends the reign of the Constitution. The most disturbing thing is that the citizens of this country are oblivious. Maybe it was a farce to begin with to think that a people could govern themselves in perpetuity. The biggest farce is to think that we still do.
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