Friday 4 May 2007

Recycling Thugs & Ideologues

John Fife's interview on Democracy Now a couple of weeks ago got to the crux of the criminality and inhumanity of the Bush administration. It's a simple reflection of the criminality and inhumanity of the Reagan administration. Reagan was Commander-in-Chief for eight years and is now largely celebrated, while being reviled only by a few of us. If Reagan could get away with it and be so honored, Bush figured he should be able to do the same. It is really at the heart of why I'm so saddened and perplexed at what is accepted behavior by our leaders in this country which celebrates values of liberty and opportunity for all.

The ideologues and thugs from the Reagan era are just being recycled by Bush. Fife brings up the prime examples of John Negroponte and Elliott Abrams. When will we ever learn.

Fife's interview was preceded by a report on the arrests and charges being brought against members of the humanitarian aid group, No More Deaths. I highly recommend both the report and the interview.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your post last year on Silent Majorities was a very, very good piece. What do you think about it now, in the aftermath of the Democrats surrender on timelines and benchmarks (which were themselves a surrender from real accountability)? Seriously -- looking forward to hearing you think out loud on the topic. I'm firmly in the "throw the bums out" camp, and think we must change the incentives.

And certainly it could be done in a coordinated and intelligent fashion. In the House, for example, target enough Democrats so that a clear message is delivered to INDIVIDUAL reps, but not so many that the Democratic majority is threatened.

I've worked for and donated to John Barrow and Jim Marshall in Georgia. Those two make perfect targets. Both have been abysmal on Iraq, and their votes are not necessary to ensure Pelosi remains speaker.

Walker said...

Thanks for dropping by. It looks like you were one of many who found me accidentally in the last couple of days due to Mark Buchanan's popular opinion piece recently published by the NYT of a similar title to that one of mine from a year ago.

I myself am originally from Georgia, and though I can't speak to the electability of more outspoken Dems from Barrow's and Marshall's districts, I think it is never wrong to challenge them. I still suspect they are likely preferable to the Republicans who might challenge them there. You probably have a better idea than me about what is realistic.

Read my post from today to get my reaction to yesterday's capitulation.