[note: Eric Chaet is the author of the delightful People I Met Hitchhiking on USA Highways. --Tony P.].
We don't want people who lie to us "representing" us--even if their policies should be brilliantly successful economically.
At least, I don't. There are some--always, I suppose--who would give up the
possibility of a government of, for, by the people--beyond kings & queens,
aristocrats, dictators, peasants & serfs, swindlers & swindled, commanders
& commanded--for a bit more money, for less anxiety.
We don't want "leaders" who send U.S. troops to occupy other nations, insisting that the occupied people set up a democracy friendly to the USA, when it is apparent that the occupied people will do no such thing, & when our own "democracy" is so clearly, currently, for sale to the highest bidders & the best organized.
We don't want to be "led" by people who are incapable of admitting ever making an error, though their blind resolve (easy to be steadfast, when you avert your eyes & ears from inconvenient knowledge) cost deaths & injuries--no need even to mention the material & financial costs & consequent suffering--from now into the foreseeable future.
There is no realistic prospect of achieving anything but more misery for everyone involved, along the path Bush & his gang follow with such proud steadfastness.
If Bush & his gang were merely poor administrators of the economy, that wouldn't be so bad. We should be used to government intervention in the economy--by both parties--that makes it harder, conscientiously, to earn a living.
I don't blame Bush & his gang for the downturn of the economy since 2000, any more than I give Clinton & his gang credit for the upturn between 1992 & 2000.
But Bush & his gang consistently lie to us--& not just about private sexual escapades, or their true feelings--but about their, OUR government's policies & actions. They involve us in one immoral catastrophe after another.
Almost every day, we hear of people killed by mistake, or in cross-fire. There's not even an attempt to count the numbers of killed & maimed, except Americans. Or to calculate how many of their relatives or friends are plotting revenge.
(Or the relatives or friends of prisoners--not just those who were militarily opposed to the United States, but others apprehended for thought-crimes, or association, or merely because they looked potentially dangerous. And not just in Iraq.)
Bush & his gang cheerfully pass out the common wealth to private interests on a scale greater than ever before. That's criminal behavior. Even if the Democrats did & do it, too, to THEIR supporters, or potential supporters--that's no excuse.
By prominently getting away with such criminal behavior, Bush & his gang set an example. They model corruption.
Bush & his gang ignore & contribute to gathering ecological tragedies. A price will have to be paid.
Bush & his gang run over hard-won individual rights--hard-won by the founders of the 18th century, & by "founders" in every generation since, always struggling against the vested establishment & comfortable, well-connected "Tories."
Bush & his gang fund the real-life training of private armies--in Iraq & Columbia, most notably--who can only eventually retreat, to practice what they have learned on us. At the same time that a swarm of enemies, their emnity inspired by the actions of these contractors for Bush & his gang--pursue them here, from every direction.
Assuming such enemies come--which seems very likely, barring supernatural or alien intervention or the breaking forth of overwhelming forces building up underground or among people not being paid attention to now--they'll be as unable to discriminate us from these retreating military contractors & their bosses, as young U.S. reservists are unable to tell Baathists from recently persecuted Shi'ites; or from democrats dedicated to the best principles of Lincoln, Jefferson, & Paine; or from young men whose only thoughts at the time were of young women, or of making a little money.
I (who am decidedly not a capital-d Democrat) intend to vote for John Kerry, the one most likely to unseat Bush & his gang, though I have no reason to believe Kerry will institute policies I believe wise, & though I doubt his courage effectively to break from Bush & his gang's course.
Maybe Kerry will surprise me, & be a great & good president. I hope so.
I intend to vote for Kerry, calculating that he won't do anywhere near as much
damage as another term for Bush & his gang of self-righteous, lying,
foresight-lacking, individual-disrespecting initiators of messes that exponentially
compound the problems they are meant to ameliorate.
Whoever is elected, I don't foresee a wiping away of most of the infamy coming out of Washington--or anywhere else, far or near.
Many people I know would do terrible things, if they thought they wouldn't get punished for it--so I don't want to pretend that Washington is Satan's headquarters--though I believe he--I am speaking metaphorically--has a lot of allies & ritzy safe-houses there.
It remains for good people, whose power mostly comes from within, to achieve
something good for themselves, & for others--if they can. And, whenever
they get sufficiently far ahead of responding urgently to crises--to become
more capable of achieving something good for themselves, & for others.