So much of the intensity and anger driving the criticisms of the Bush presidency -- certainly my own, and much of what I read (as exemplified above) -- is grounded in a fervent belief in American political values, its political principles and its constitutional framework. The anger comes not from a belief that the U.S. is an evil and corrupt entity, but from the opposite view. It comes from witnessing the all-out assault on these vaunted political principles and values and the complete corruption, close to the destruction, of our country's national character that has made the U.S. such an important and admired presence in the world for so long.
But those who focus on America's flaws to the exclusion of its virtues are but the opposite side of the same Manichean coin from the American exceptionalists who believe that we can do no wrong, that America is inherently Good independent of our conduct in the world. What the Pew poll demonstrates is that the face America has shown to the world during the Bush presidency -- at least insofar as the world perceives it, a vitally important metric -- is a fundamentally different one than they saw previously.
In the last six years, America's brutality, unrestrained aggression, and violation of our own professed values have been transformed from destructive aberration into our defining attributes. And the world's population sees that transformation quite clearly and, as a result, their view of America has transformed along with it.
Greenwald says in three paragraphs what I've been struggling in my mind for months to get out in a post.
I don't see or feel much hope for the near future for this country, either. Despite the obviousness that a Democrat will be the next president, it's not like he/she can just walk into the job, wiggle his/her nose, and undo what the Bush administration solidified these past eight years.
What about the permanent bases in Iraq, the ones that this government is paying for with American tax dollars? I don't expect the next president to be able to unravel or ungrease all the damned palms it took to keep this thing hush hush for so long.
What about all the private contracting that's taken over most of the federal government's business, to the benefit of only a few large corporate CEO's, that are raking in the dollars in inflated contracts for poor to non-existent services? Think about the new embassy in Baghdad, and the "building and safety blunders in a new facility to house the security guards protecting the embassy." Nothing works, but millions have been spent anyway. A new president isn't going to be able to just cancel these bad contracts with a snap of his/her finger.
What about all the destruction of independent press? The damn Wall Street Journal will soon be under the thumb of Master Rupert Murdoch. A new president is not going to simply change FCC rules that got us to this drastic point in time. I mean, come on, that there are still, what, over 40% of Americans still buying into the Iraq-9/11 connection, definitely indicates something is inherently wrong with our news disseminating department.
What about Katrina, where 1,836 people were killed and more than $81 billion in damages occurred? Here are some pertinent quotes from thefirst U.S. Social Forum, attended today in Atlanta by more than 10,000 people:
Jerome Scott of Project South said, "The whole question of the [U.S.] Gulf Coast and the response the government had... pulled the covers on all the evil things that exist in this country."
"They systematically performed genocide behind the guise of a disaster," (Mwalimu) Johnson said.
"The hurt that I feel for New Orleans, point blank murder," Sharon Harshaw of the Mississippi group Coastal Women for Change said at the meeting.
"If you're working in criminal justice, you're talking about Katrina. If you're talking about health care, you're talking about Katrina. If you're talking about housing, you're talking about Katrina. We're living in a nightmare called Katrina. The source is a backwards, capitalist, racist system," one audience member said in public remarks.
"We have sown the wind of mean-spiritedness toward the poor, and lack of humaneness toward the stranger at our door. There is something terribly wrong with our system of economics and values when we have disparities, when any handful of people have more than they'll ever need while millions have less than they will always need," (Joseph) Lowery said.
"We are torn asunder by the erosion of our civil liberties," he added. "We are damaged by the misconception that might makes right and that we can resolve every conflict by sending smart bombs on dumb missions."
No, as I sigh over and over again when thinking about how damaged this country has become, I just hope that I can still be alive long enough to see her recover, because it will be a long, long time coming. It is most certainly not around the corner, not even with a Democrat in the White House.
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