A Tragic Legacy
There's a great Glenn Greenwald piece up on Salon right now detailing how Bush's moral certitude has left the United States, and upon which everything this country was founded, in a shambles.
Excerpt:
One of the principal dangers of vesting power in a leader who is convinced of his own righteousness -- who believes that, by virtue of his ascension to political power, he has been called to a crusade against Evil -- is that the moral imperative driving the mission will justify any and all means used to achieve it. Those who have become convinced that they are waging an epic and all-consuming existential war against Evil cannot, by the very premises of their belief system, accept any limitations -- moral, pragmatic, or otherwise -- on the methods adopted to triumph in this battle....
These principles illuminate a central, and tragic, paradox at the heart of the Bush presidency. The president who vowed to lead America in a moral crusade to win hearts and minds around the world has so inflamed anti-American sentiment that America's moral standing in the world is at an all-time low. The president who vowed to defend the Good in the world from the forces of Evil has caused the United States to be held in deep contempt by large segments of virtually every country on every continent of the world, including large portions of nations with which the U.S. has historically been allied.
...
In sum, the great and tragic irony of the Bush presidency is that its morally convicted foundations have yielded some of the most morally grotesque acts and radical departures from American values in our country's history.
It makes you wonder if we can ever get this country back. We'll clearly need someone who, more than experience, has the right judgement and legal and moral clarity to right this ship.
Comments
I'm starting to think the Al Gore is the only one who could put the country back on track, domestically and internationally. Obama is fumbling his campaign - even though he's going to raise more money than Clinton again this quarter - and Clinton probably can't get elected in the general election (at least, that's what current polling says).
Posted by: Mike Visser | June 20, 2007 11:02 AM