In Observance of President’s Day

In observance of President’s Day, I’m going to focus on the mission of this blog:

Documenting the impact, the legacy of the Bush presidency, and advocating in favor of the hoped-for day of accounting for former President George Walker Bush.

There are those who believe that it would be detrimental to the Nation to pursue actions against Mr. Bush, now that he’s out of office.  I’m not one of those, and here are my reasons:

• Those opposing former President Clinton left no stone unturned in their fishing expedition to find something that would stick in an impeachment effort, and the best they could come up with was lying to a grand jury.
• Pursuit of an investigation to reveal evidence of greed, corruption, malfeasance, ideologically-driven misconduct, and high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Regime may not prevent them from happening in future administrations, but it certainly will reveal the depth and breadth of the political machinations, cronyism and self-serving behavior at the public trough that we have survived, and hopefully that will live on in people’s minds as much as the Watergate and Iran Contra episodes have.

Well, we survived the Clinton impeachment proceedings and I don’t think that one American died – except Vince Foster – one private citizen’s job was lost, one house was foreclosed, or one industry was shattered because of either what Clinton admitted to doing or what he was charged with doing in those proceedings.  I was and am a Bill Clinton supporter, but I’m not an apologist: he should have acted more decisively in Afghanistan and Iraq, he should have moved more forcefully in his first 100 days and saved the triangulation for later, etc.

Since I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel and I don’t support plagiarism, I would like to point to an excellent compilation of 666 Reasons Sentient Citizens are Still Celebrating the Long Overdue Departure of George W. Bush published in Kotori Magazine.

The article details and sources reports illustrating the character and behavior of the former President from his youthful adventures abusing animals to his later underwhelming exploits as a student, draft evader and businessman to his headlong stumble into political life, reminiscent of a Chevy Chase pratfall face-down into the public trough.

Since Kotori Magazine has provided the extensive list already, I’d recommend that you spend some time dissecting and absorbing it on President’s Day:

http://kotorimagazine.com/74/236.html

Now there are discussions of a “truth and reconciliation” effort, similar to what was done in South Africa.  The reason I would advocate for Congressional and criminal investigations, followed by civil proceedings, is simple and profoundly obvious: even in a post-Obama election world, Progressive Americans don’t have the kind of overwhelming majority black Africans did in South Africa.  White dominance isn’t coming back in South Africa.

But in this country, the well-funded special interests are still securely and comfortably ensconced, the ideological zealots are still among us, and the legacy of bureaucratic and judicial stoogery grafted into the Tree of Liberty by the Bush Regime is alive and well, from the Supreme Court and the Patriot Act right on down the line.  Read Thomas Frank‘s The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule for some eye-opening insight into this process.  If such a small white minority held sway in South Africa for so many years, it is folly to believe the moneyed interests in this country couldn’t find another pathway back into power, and a willing following to stampede along with them.

I believe that serious investigations and appropriate penalties are absolutely necessary to the rejuvenation of our national morale and our image around the world.  American democracy is the most amazing political experiment in the history of modern mankind, and it has the power to transform the globe in a positive way.  We’ve seen how it can impact the world negatively, and it’s time to turn it back around.

I hope we can look forward to a much more condensed article in the future entitled Justice Delayed: Why We Need to Pursue Investigations of the Bush Administration.  Joe Biden stated during the campaign that this would be pursued, the question is being put to President Obama and to the Democratic legislators, and the American people want to know: Is this a nation of laws, or a nation of privilege?

If we as a people stood by while these things were done under our noses and in our names, and then fail to act in the aftermath, why would any nation respect, trust or want to model what we do?   Why would any poor child in Latin America, in the Middle East, in Asia, in Africa believe that we are anything but what their despotic rulers tell them we are?  The New Age of the Ugly American is upon us, and only we can compel our leaders to do what is necessary to head it off.

I believe that the Higher Power of your choice will illuminate the correct path for us to follow as a nation.  However, it is our individual responsibility as citizens to stand up and demand of our representatives that they follow that path.

Happy President’s Day.