Can American voters impose any meaningful accountability on George W. Bush, including possibly removing him and his team from office?
robert parry's asking the question - yet again... i still believe it's precisely the right question... but here's parry's response...
nobody wants a "worthy political leader" more than i do... maybe there's one out there... i'd like to hope so... but, sorry, i just don't see the rest of it happening...
for what robert parry suggests to happen, there'd have to be a wholesale awakening of the american people and the raising of the level of consciousness well past where it is today... it's not that people aren't capable of grasping the gravity of what bushco has been doing to this country... people are a lot smarter than they're given credit for... the problem is that we've (and, yes, i put myself in this category too) have been TRAINED VERY WELL to focus on other things... like noam chomsky points out, you can go into any bar after work where the guys are drinking beer and meet someone who can spout baseball stats going back to the 1900's but doesn't know who karl rove is...
the other thing that would have to change, and i don't see this happening either, is for people in the u.s. to begin repudiating the current zeitgeist, the self-righteous, chest-thumping, testosterone-fueled, kick-'em-in-the-ass mentality that bushco has been deliberately feeding, particularly since 9/11... the instant gratification of proclaiming cultural superiority, military might, economic dominance, and all the other things we've been rubbing in the face of the rest of the world has to give way to some humility, some empathy, some willingness to accept differences...
finally, for what parry suggests to manifest, people have to feel PERSONALLY UNCOMFORTABLE and not just with high gas and home heating prices... we're COMFORTABLE and as long as the bush disaster isn't intruding into our personal lives, there isn't going to be a mass response to anything...
so, what do we do...? imho, another year of bush could see a further ruin of this country that might be impossible to reverse... but, what do we do...? honestly, i am clueless... Submit To Propeller
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What if the voters acted independently to defeat as many Republicans as possible, not just to put more Democrats in office, but to send a message to both parties that the extremism, the trickery and the corruption personified by the neoconservatives now in charge of the Republican Party will no longer be tolerated?
What if the result of this popular uprising against Bush is not just some marginal Democratic gains, but a landslide repudiation of recent government policies?
Would a solid Democratic majority in both houses represent a mandate for accountability, an imperative so strong that even the timid Democratic leadership couldn’t ignore it?
Might the top Democrats calculate that shirking their duty again represented more of a political risk than holding Bush accountable through investigations and possible impeachment? Is it possible that out of such a changed climate a worthy political leader – and a reformed Republican Party – might arise?
nobody wants a "worthy political leader" more than i do... maybe there's one out there... i'd like to hope so... but, sorry, i just don't see the rest of it happening...
for what robert parry suggests to happen, there'd have to be a wholesale awakening of the american people and the raising of the level of consciousness well past where it is today... it's not that people aren't capable of grasping the gravity of what bushco has been doing to this country... people are a lot smarter than they're given credit for... the problem is that we've (and, yes, i put myself in this category too) have been TRAINED VERY WELL to focus on other things... like noam chomsky points out, you can go into any bar after work where the guys are drinking beer and meet someone who can spout baseball stats going back to the 1900's but doesn't know who karl rove is...
the other thing that would have to change, and i don't see this happening either, is for people in the u.s. to begin repudiating the current zeitgeist, the self-righteous, chest-thumping, testosterone-fueled, kick-'em-in-the-ass mentality that bushco has been deliberately feeding, particularly since 9/11... the instant gratification of proclaiming cultural superiority, military might, economic dominance, and all the other things we've been rubbing in the face of the rest of the world has to give way to some humility, some empathy, some willingness to accept differences...
finally, for what parry suggests to manifest, people have to feel PERSONALLY UNCOMFORTABLE and not just with high gas and home heating prices... we're COMFORTABLE and as long as the bush disaster isn't intruding into our personal lives, there isn't going to be a mass response to anything...
so, what do we do...? imho, another year of bush could see a further ruin of this country that might be impossible to reverse... but, what do we do...? honestly, i am clueless... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
9/30/2005
