DEMOCRACY:
Government & Politics | March 14, 2006
A
LEGACY
OF
DAMAGE
TO
AMERICA:
THE
PRESIDENT'S
VILE
PRECEDENTS
ETCETERA
By
Douglas Drenkow, Editor of "Progressive
Thinking"
A
Posting in DailyKos,
OpEdNews,
Comments
From Left Field, & BarryTalk
The vile precedents
established by this president must be added to the long and growing list
of damages that he and his ilk are inflicting upon America and the world
-- a legacy that will haunt us and cripple us for generations yet to come.
Let us not be as foolish or arrogant as those who misgovern us; let us
never forget or dismiss their betrayals of the public trust:
George W. Bush and his
administration have repeatedly and unapologetically lied and otherwise
misled our nation and our allies into an unnecessary war, trashing our
reputation in the world and costing thousands of Americans their lives,
limbs, and loved ones and tens of thousands of innocent civilians overseas
even more.
George W. Bush ignored grave
warnings and opened a Pandora's Box of ancient, violent ethnic and
religious conflict right in the middle of the Middle East -- at the heart
of the world of the world's billion Muslims, in the most vital region of
our national interests overseas -- without a clue of how to proceed, other
than to spout empty platitudes and self-righteous homilies that have
little or no connection to the reality that we can see all too well on the
ground.
George W. Bush and his
administration and their allies in the corporate world have manipulated
the media both at home and abroad, deceiving the public and thus betraying
the very democracy they claim to uphold, with other people's lives.
George W. Bush has violated
treaty after treaty -- in everything from protecting our environment to
torturing captives -- made in good faith between our nation and others,
thus sullying the good name of America -- branding us not only a rogue
state but also a hypocrite, our condemnations of others who violate
international obligations now lacking any moral authority.
George W. Bush and his
military administration have engaged in "bait and switch"
contracts and other tactics more characteristic of confidence men than
honorable men, in their dealings with National Guard and other troops and
recruits, whose families and veterans and injured and dead are as
neglected as were the duties of George W. Bush when he was in service.
George W. Bush continues to
blatantly violate explicit federal law -- to trash both the letter and the
spirit of the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution -- by authorizing
wiretaps without warrant, as if the legislative and judicial branches of
the government were irrelevant to his exercise of raw power.
George W. Bush or others in
his administration have revealed the identity and, thus, the operation of
a covert agent gathering intelligence on terrorists acquiring weapons of
mass destruction in order to protect a lie about those very same threats.
George W. Bush is packing
the Supreme Court of the United States with judges for life who have
betrayed the fundamental principle of justice by advancing the claims of
the powerful at the expense of those less able to defend their rights to
life, liberty, or property.
George W. Bush and his
administration have let big business ravage the interests of employees,
consumers, and the environment -- the vast majority of Americans and our
priceless American heritage.
George W. Bush and his
allies in Congress have saddled us and our children and countless
generations yet to come with record trillions of dollars in debt --
indebting us heavily to foreign powers, inviting disaster, and crippling
programs needed by the needy -- in large measure to provide short-term,
utterly unnecessary gains for the wealthiest among us.
George W. Bush has
hypocritically left children behind, as he withdrew funding he promised
for his much touted initiative of education.
George W. Bush and his
allies in Congress have lavished upon pharmaceutical and insurance
companies hundreds of billions of dollars in new government spending for a
program that does them much more good than the old, sick people it was
purported to help; the numbers of all Americans who suffer and die without
the means to pay for the care they need rising every day, their needless,
selfish neglect a crime against humanity.
George W. Bush and his
administration failed to heed the warnings, both in the long term and
short, to protect the citizens of New Orleans, the reconstruction of the
ruins of this once-great American city now becoming a boondoggle
benefiting big business more than the victims of the disaster, much as has
been the scandalous case in Iraq.
And never forget that George
W. Bush claimed election by votes whose tally did not even come close to
matching the same sorts of polls by which his own administration judges
the fairness of elections conducted overseas -- the companies counting the
votes, with machines that cannot be audited, controlled by staunch allies
of the candidate claiming victory.
In case after case, the most
serious injury inflicted upon our nation by this failed presidency is a
betrayal of the trust of the American people -- a legacy for which all of
us will pay long after George W. Bush has left office.
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