Anything Less Than Absolute Moral Clarity from Democrats Will Enshrine Bush's Abuses
Over the past four months there have been a series of flare-ups between the Obama administration and the progressive activist community, centered mainly around the new administration's willingness (or lack thereof) to reverse Bush-Cheney's radical excesses in the realm of civil liberties, secrecy, detainee treatment, interrogation, and counter-terrorism.
Ever astute and incisive, Digby raises what I think is the critical point in this entire debate:
The argument against torture is slipping away from us. In fact, I'm getting the sinking feeling that it's over. What was once taboo is now publicly acknowledged as completely acceptable by many people. Indeed, disapproval of torture is now being characterized as a strictly partisan issue, like welfare reform or taxes.
Ari Melber, my former Kerry campaign colleague, takes a parallel tack, arguing that there should be no debate here; torture is illegal. Even Bush acknowledged that.
Glenn Greenwald, an indispensible voice on this topic, says bluntly:
Ever since he was inaugurated, Obama has taken one extreme step after the next to keep concealed both the details and the evidence of Bush's crimes, including rendition, torture and warrantless eavesdropping.
As has been the case for years, Democratic leaders, operating within the Washington bubble, misconstrue the concerns of the netroots and often privately dismiss them as the rantings of immature outsiders and political neophytes.
But as always, the progressive community, a far more efficient thinking machine than a handful of strategists and advisers, is looking ahead and raising a unified alarm. The message is this: anything less than absolute moral clarity from Democrats, who now control the levers of power, will enshrine Bush's abuses and undermine the rule of law for generations to come.
Setting aside all the campaign slogans about hope and change, what Obama really signifies is a razor sharp break from Bush, Cheney, Yoo, Rice, Rumsfeld, Addington, Libby, Bybee et al. After eight years of damage to the fabric of our Constitution and our nation, the entire point of a new face, a smart, youthful, inspiring Democratic president is to completely and totally reject the Bush years, to reject the lawless behavior, the Orwellian rationales, the blatant disregard of the Constitution.
Neglecting to do so, and leaving any doubt about where Democrats stand on these issues, is profoundly detrimental to the country.
Back to Digby:
We are in big trouble when torture becomes just another political football. It's the kind of thing that turns powerful empires into pariah nations.
Exactly. The underlying issue here is not these intermittent battles between the new administration and the progressive community (fodder for the media and conservatives) but whether the White House and Democratic leaders comprehend the repercussions of allowing DC's complex internal pressures and maneuverings -- which are largely invisible to outsiders -- to obfuscate the Bush administration's excesses.
Failing to make a clean break from the Bush years will deprive America of the one thing it needs most: an affirmation of the rule of law and the consequent reclaiming of moral authority.
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i sincerely hope and pray that obama finally figures out that the best solution, in a situation which has no good solutions, is to rendition this load of criminals off to spain or the netherlands where evidence can be properly assessed and a judgement rendered
and maybe, if there's a spare day or two in the court's calender, they can take a look at the overwhelming evidence contradicting the totally uncorroborated bushco version of what happened on 9/11 in new york which lead on to subsequent events in london and madrid
anybody with a modicum of common sense knows that democrats have been in bed with rightwing republicans since way before the cheney/halliburton war machine went into high gear after 9/11 -- the only thing that one can really say in their defense is that the dems are probably being coerced and blackmailed thanks to their own failure to oversee bush's illegal wiretapping operations
this is nothing new -- j edgar hoover used this blackmail tactic to great political effect for more than 40 years
pelosi's collusion has been blatantly obvious since she took the leadership in 2006 and immediately began declaring to one and all that bush/cheney impeachment proceedings were "off the table", a sentiment which president obama now seems to share
the dems have totally failed in their obligation to protect an entire generation of america's young people, serving in the military, from bushco's bogus warmongering, which has inflicted so much needless death, disfigurement and severe emotional trauma upon these soldiers, their families and loved ones
Orwell:
All are equal. But some are more equal than others.
Obama:
All are subject to law. But some are less subject than others.
The choices concerning the Obama administration and future administrations are indeed vile. We don't have any legs left to stand on and say, Obama got this right: he wouldn't allow torture and wouldn't allow such despicable practices as we know existed during the previous Bush administration. We are in the practice of holding our community breaths now, hoping againt hope that we aren't hearing it all or that someone is not telling the truth. We want to find an administration that makes up proud, that we can have no doubts about....and yet we haven't any reason at the moment to believe that the present one is such an administration.
We need a criminal investigation into the torture charges. Anything less than this would be unacceptable to a country which is founded on the rule of law. .
Buckcable,
You're spot on.
Daou, great post.
the bush/cheney criminal cartel is a still active and potentially fatal disease -- these traitors have had eight years to infiltrate, disrupt, infect and corrupt the body politic of America with an insidious ideological and financial cancer which is actively metastasizing as we speak --
president Obama is going to have to decide whether to intervene with surgery and an aggressive course of chemo or let the nation's democratic ideals die a slow and painful fascist death .........
dont you get it? bush is just obama light. there both big government progressive facists, just bush spent 1+ trillion, obama is spending 3.4 trillion. at least bush left us a better court, and 2 democracies in the middle east, obama will leave us with a civil war, no faith, and a third world country.
"spoken" like a true "opposite world" bushrovian dittobot --
we are ALREADY well on our way to having a civil war, no faith, and a third world country thanks to the fine work of bush&co over the last eight years --
your attempt to shove the blame for this mess off on obama is transparently lame and without a shred of merit --
keep drinkin' the koolaid if it makes you feel a little better about the demise of your democracy .........
OBAMA - old promises just keep fading away. Democrats showing no backbone again and again. Just another big disappointment! We should have known better. Shame on us!
Why are we just pursuing the Bush administration of war crimes? Why not investigate where all those billions of dollars that went in to no bid contracts in Iraq - what we got for them what Bush and Co. got for them. We might even get some back from KBR and Haliburton. There should be some interesting paper trails of Iraq expenditures - that eventually get back to the Bush hierarchy. When court convictions get moving and people start going to jail, we might get a shot at finding out whether Bush manipulated FL elections in 2004 when some of the Bush cronies turn states evidence. The war crimes has to be the hardest to prosecute because if you dig deep enough I'm sure you'll find that a lot Democrats share responsibility for helping the Bush administration get there way. I think Obama's biggest fear with prosecution is just how far it will reach in both parties. If there are honest and just prosecutions, we could end up with next to nothing left of the Bush Republicans walking free and maybe even half of the the Democrats in jail. Perhaps that is what we need. Only Washington insiders believes that you can't change the corruption in Washington. Why try to save our economy if you leave the same thieves in place to steal it again? Washington is bucket with countless holes in it - and until count them and until we fix those holes, it makes no sense to keep
Gee I wonder what your former boss would have done. Hmmmm.
We need to throw Pelosi and Bush under the bus.
America and the world need transparency and honesty. The truth is simple lies are complicated.
American IMAGE is very important. This is Our Oppurtunity to say to the world, "we believe in, and press for, the rule of law."
Release the new torture pictures then immediately press for justice. We should be harsh when it comes to punishment of our criminals. Why ? Because it will save lives, you know it and I know it. ..
But I feel I should run the facts by you anyway...The people we have been fighting have families, these families have VERY long memories. These families will remember whether America punished the torturers or did we let them go with a slap on the wrist.
These families will remember our actions and 'revenge' is part of their heritage. Its an honor thing with many of them. According to centuries of tradition,these families will have 'the right' to attack us.
Fact is, they will be 'Honor bound' to 'get blood revenge' and restore their family pride.
Please help our children live in a safer world.
That's the one thing I've ALWAYS seen from Democrats. Absolute moral clarity. Of course, that depends on what the definition of the word is, is.
Moral Calrity is available though very rare.
In most instances we percieve self righteousness and zealotry as being Moral Clarity.
This is how evil works.
Evil veils itself in the shrouds of decency and the language of all goodness.
It nibbles away at those same things from the inside.
It's jaws wear the painted lips of Satans Whores.
It's tongue is smooth and delicious as it shares the Kiss of Life with us all.
It's cloven hooves are hidden in the shoes of free enterprise and laisez fair.
It's pointy tail is unseen beneath the dress of think tanks and verbosity.
It's appeal is to our greed and vanity and fear and lust and hate and our love and faith and honor and patriotism, but all is couched to seem to appeal to only the good values.
It loves to see us fight each other with real passion and real care for our ideals.
This then is the cross the few actual good folks are tortured on, as the rest of us pave the road to hell and then take that road for our own being that weak of heart and mind, claiming it was somebody elses fault.
So the fist is squeezed tightly closed and the juice of life, the love of liberty itself is dripping away, perhaps to fall on another Nation more willing to live up to Love.
Moral authority......now that is laughable LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL Yeah, gather those like Frank, Dodd,Reid, Murtha, Acorn, GE, of course Pelosi........ There isn't enough morality between them to fit into a thimble. Here i've got a nice cool glass of kool-aid for you. ROFLMAO-MORALITY MY FOOT
The right wingnuts have been blowing smoke up each others' backsides for so long they will believe anything that feeds their insatiable schadenfreude. The irony here is that the wingnuts aren't only the biggest perpetrators of hateful propaganda in America today; they are also its biggest victims, as belonging to the GOP "cult" means severing any and all relationships with objective reality. The radical right has adopted the tools once employed by the leftist authoritarians of China and the USSR; they have created an alternate history where the US fought on the wrong side in WWII, where FDR created and/or prolonged the Great Depression, and where the civil rights legislation of the 1960s was an affront to them personally.
These radical rightists have quickly polarized themselves to the point where anyone who disagrees with them is not only a "liberal", but now even a "socialist". It's like they've parked Rush Limbaugh at the exact South Pole, and anyone not standing where Rush is standing is NORTH by comparison.
We're waiting......................................tick, tock........tick, tock..............
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