Shalrirorchia
06-11-2006, 06:28
On Tuesday, some of the American people will head to the polls to decide who will run Congress for the next two years.
It is not a decision to be undertaken lightly. Our country is in crisis...not from the actions of enemies outside, but rather from the actions of certain people INSIDE the country. Some of the building blocks of American economic and political liberty have been unmade by a President who does not respect the rule of law. The question of whether or not George W. Bush has exceeded his powers as President is beyond the scope of this article, but it is safe to say that when the Supreme Court rebukes your actions in the War On Terror that you have done something wrong. "Exceeded powers" is a nice way of saying he broke the law.
A discussion of the President's actions is long overdue. Previous attempts to question the unfettered use of executive power have been shouted down by conservatives who question the patriotism, intelligence, and morality of those asking the questions. A whole litany of easy-to-remember phrases such as "stay the course", "cut and run", and "soft on terrorism" have been developed by Republicans to label their opponents. Those labels have been used without restraint to destroy the credibility of Democratic candidates around the country.
The Republican Party resorts to the use of these labels because, in truth, it has much to fear from an honest discussion of policy. They have had nearly six years of uninterrupted rule, yet their policies have not brought victory in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their actions have not raised the wages of hardworking Americans. Their decisions have not made college more affordable for American students. Their talk has not secured America's borders. At a time when America needed a great President, it got a subpar CEO instead.
The Party can not slither away from the blame either. For six years it has rubber-stamped the President's ineffectual policies. In 2002 and 2004, Congressional Republicans all around the country proudly touted their political allegiance with the Bush Administration, and his popularity at the time brought them victory after victory over the Democrats. It can not distance itself from Bush now that he is unpopular. They bound themselves to him and his policies with chains of political steel. They must truly think us stupid if they believe that we will forget those little details. The Republican Party had an opportunity in 2004, when it was clear that Bush Administration policies were NOT working, to denounce those policies and move on to something else. Most failed to do so, putting loyalty to Party ahead of all other considerations.
Yet there were some principled and moderate Republicans who stood up to the corruption of their Party by the radicals, and I was proud to work with them as a volunteer of the Democratic presidential campaign. In hindsight, 2004 was not a total loss for me as a volunteer or for the Democrats as a party. We demonstrated that we could and would work with rational, principled Republicans, and that loyalty to country could and would trump loyalty to party in the hearts of true patriots. There IS a different path other than the one of divide and conquer offered by Bush and his neoconservative allies. It does not take a liberal elitist to see, however, that our current polcies are not working.
It is of moderate Republicans and Independents that I truly wish to speak. This is an election that will hinge on the centrists. This is an election that is just as important as 2004. We are faced with a President who is absolutely unwilling to change tactics or admit error. His ideology-driven policies have not reflected reality in Iraq or elsewhere, and because of that those policies are failing us. Bush himself came out last week and declared that both Cheney and Rumsfeld (key architects in the war in Iraq) will be on the Presidential team until the day Bush leaves office. This in the face of new reports of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of weapons missing in Iraq (also from last week). This in the face of reports that Halliburton (Cheney's old company and a major contractor for reconstruction in Iraq) has deliberately attempted to prevent U.S. oversight of its' Iraqi operations (despite reports of serious fraud). This in the face of the fact that congressional Republicans just last week passed a bill that will shut down the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction....the office that investigates waste and fraud in Iraq and that has prosecuted people for these crimes in the past.
Both then and now, the Republicans in Congress have acted as Mr. Bush's accomplices. They have time after time used their power to conceal vital information from the American public....the closing of the S.I.G.I.R.'s office is but one more incident in a pattern of deceitful behavior. They have also written Bush a blank check in matters of foreign and domestic policy. They have not exercised congressional oversight over his programs. They have not taken actions to restrain him when he exceeds his powers. They have acted in a manner most unwelcome, and Congress and the country have suffered because of it.
It is time for a change. It is time for the moderates of this country to rise up and demand accountability, for a President and a Party that is riddled with such mind-blowing incompetence cannot go unpunished at the ballot boxes this November. Indeed, I say that nothing less than the viability of our democracy is at stake. If the G.O.P. is allowed to retain power in Congress after failing utterly to control Iraq, after failing to revive the economy in a meaningful way, after failing to catch Osama Bin Laden, after dividing this country when it needed to be united, then we can no longer hope for any accountability in the modern American political system. The government will become nothing more than the prize of those wealthy and ruthless enough to grasp the levers of power. If Americans are really as unhappy with our leaders as they claim to be, then they must ACT. Go to the polls this Tuesday, cast your vote for change, and demand accountability. Demand results. Demand that which is yours by right as an American citizen, and stand up for responsible, responsive government. Now is a time for unity of political thought and action against those who are wrecking this republic.
For as Benjamin Franklin once said, "If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately."
It is not a decision to be undertaken lightly. Our country is in crisis...not from the actions of enemies outside, but rather from the actions of certain people INSIDE the country. Some of the building blocks of American economic and political liberty have been unmade by a President who does not respect the rule of law. The question of whether or not George W. Bush has exceeded his powers as President is beyond the scope of this article, but it is safe to say that when the Supreme Court rebukes your actions in the War On Terror that you have done something wrong. "Exceeded powers" is a nice way of saying he broke the law.
A discussion of the President's actions is long overdue. Previous attempts to question the unfettered use of executive power have been shouted down by conservatives who question the patriotism, intelligence, and morality of those asking the questions. A whole litany of easy-to-remember phrases such as "stay the course", "cut and run", and "soft on terrorism" have been developed by Republicans to label their opponents. Those labels have been used without restraint to destroy the credibility of Democratic candidates around the country.
The Republican Party resorts to the use of these labels because, in truth, it has much to fear from an honest discussion of policy. They have had nearly six years of uninterrupted rule, yet their policies have not brought victory in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their actions have not raised the wages of hardworking Americans. Their decisions have not made college more affordable for American students. Their talk has not secured America's borders. At a time when America needed a great President, it got a subpar CEO instead.
The Party can not slither away from the blame either. For six years it has rubber-stamped the President's ineffectual policies. In 2002 and 2004, Congressional Republicans all around the country proudly touted their political allegiance with the Bush Administration, and his popularity at the time brought them victory after victory over the Democrats. It can not distance itself from Bush now that he is unpopular. They bound themselves to him and his policies with chains of political steel. They must truly think us stupid if they believe that we will forget those little details. The Republican Party had an opportunity in 2004, when it was clear that Bush Administration policies were NOT working, to denounce those policies and move on to something else. Most failed to do so, putting loyalty to Party ahead of all other considerations.
Yet there were some principled and moderate Republicans who stood up to the corruption of their Party by the radicals, and I was proud to work with them as a volunteer of the Democratic presidential campaign. In hindsight, 2004 was not a total loss for me as a volunteer or for the Democrats as a party. We demonstrated that we could and would work with rational, principled Republicans, and that loyalty to country could and would trump loyalty to party in the hearts of true patriots. There IS a different path other than the one of divide and conquer offered by Bush and his neoconservative allies. It does not take a liberal elitist to see, however, that our current polcies are not working.
It is of moderate Republicans and Independents that I truly wish to speak. This is an election that will hinge on the centrists. This is an election that is just as important as 2004. We are faced with a President who is absolutely unwilling to change tactics or admit error. His ideology-driven policies have not reflected reality in Iraq or elsewhere, and because of that those policies are failing us. Bush himself came out last week and declared that both Cheney and Rumsfeld (key architects in the war in Iraq) will be on the Presidential team until the day Bush leaves office. This in the face of new reports of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of weapons missing in Iraq (also from last week). This in the face of reports that Halliburton (Cheney's old company and a major contractor for reconstruction in Iraq) has deliberately attempted to prevent U.S. oversight of its' Iraqi operations (despite reports of serious fraud). This in the face of the fact that congressional Republicans just last week passed a bill that will shut down the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction....the office that investigates waste and fraud in Iraq and that has prosecuted people for these crimes in the past.
Both then and now, the Republicans in Congress have acted as Mr. Bush's accomplices. They have time after time used their power to conceal vital information from the American public....the closing of the S.I.G.I.R.'s office is but one more incident in a pattern of deceitful behavior. They have also written Bush a blank check in matters of foreign and domestic policy. They have not exercised congressional oversight over his programs. They have not taken actions to restrain him when he exceeds his powers. They have acted in a manner most unwelcome, and Congress and the country have suffered because of it.
It is time for a change. It is time for the moderates of this country to rise up and demand accountability, for a President and a Party that is riddled with such mind-blowing incompetence cannot go unpunished at the ballot boxes this November. Indeed, I say that nothing less than the viability of our democracy is at stake. If the G.O.P. is allowed to retain power in Congress after failing utterly to control Iraq, after failing to revive the economy in a meaningful way, after failing to catch Osama Bin Laden, after dividing this country when it needed to be united, then we can no longer hope for any accountability in the modern American political system. The government will become nothing more than the prize of those wealthy and ruthless enough to grasp the levers of power. If Americans are really as unhappy with our leaders as they claim to be, then they must ACT. Go to the polls this Tuesday, cast your vote for change, and demand accountability. Demand results. Demand that which is yours by right as an American citizen, and stand up for responsible, responsive government. Now is a time for unity of political thought and action against those who are wrecking this republic.
For as Benjamin Franklin once said, "If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately."