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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Dear President Obama, don't fail us. Prosecute these legal and moral abuses of truth and freedom, the war crimes.
To not do so is to acknowledge that the highest office in the land does not care about the rule of law and whether or not our American ideals die from within.
That American ideals should die by suicide is painful and shameful to watch, please end this today as they longer it lingers the more the world will hasten a retreat from honor, freedom, and truth.
You are not in a popularity contest, sir, you are the top law enforcer in the land, please do the job.
With your permission I'd like to copy this and mail it to the President.
Pres. Obama is not "the top law enforcer." The Dept. of Justice is under Obama, but independent. One of Buysh/Cheney's crimes was interfering with DOJ. Nixon resigned because he ran private, political investigations.
Pres. Obama has no authority to investigate or prosecute anyone for anything. It would be illegal for him to try.
If you're concerned about "the rule of law" then how about honoring the U.S. Constitution? Investigations are up to Congress and prosecutions are up to the Department of Justice. Obama IS doing his job and obeying the Constitution -- He's staying out of it -- as the Constitution requires.
Thank you for an excellent posting. We are letting the Republicans somehow try to make Nancy Pelosi the poster girl responsible for the acts of torture perpetrated by Bush/Cheney. I sincerely hope this is not emblematic of the new administration, sometimes it appears that the president is responding to polling data rather than acting to do what is right and let the chips fall where they may
Exactly what I thought I was buying with my canvassing, campaign organizing, voter registration drives, voting and voting fraud and intimidation monitoring. Thank you for reminding me that I still have not gotten the good deal for my buck. But as the President said himself, hope is alive and it will only die with me.
"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.
The Democrats politisized our security for their own ends...kee
politicizing security for their own ends a Democratic notion only,,,hmm I don't think so. The acidic reign of chain.y has corroded the brain wiring of many an American, and consolidation of power both monetary and political was it's constant wet dream. U too may have bought into all that, sounds from remarks as though you have. Very unfortunate and w/o any logic or look at the true history of the r.thu.gs in power, driven by a lust for power to the detriment of everything else including the most basic & precious laws of our great country. stop fooling yourself, chain.y and his sock puppet are going down, and just like during most of the last 8, georgie won't have the slightest idea what's happening.
WOW!!!!
Revise reality much?
The Republicans ignored warnings of an imminent attack, then used the aftermath of that attack to stage the most expansive power grab in US history!
Again with the ditto head talking points....
The media is owned by 5 or 6 conglomerations chaired by conservati
The thing about being in opposition is that you can pretend to be morally superior without having to make the difficult decisions. The Democrats won't be "morally superior" because they aren't. Obama is now discovering that the "abuses" (like Gitmo and many others), we're real handy as a red herring for motivating the drooling masses to vote, but we're actually pragmatic policies. One by one, the "outrages" (like club Gitmo), will be accepted as necessary by Obama, albeit with some phony feel-good political window dressing added to mollify the base.
Unfortunately, we are only seeing this from a distance, your "pragmatic" yet still illegal detention of "Suspects" will have to be addressed. Everyone captured, or turned in for a bounty was not and is not a terrorist, yet they have yet to charged!
A proper tribunal is OK, as long as the defendant receives adequate representation. But how can you enter their guilty pleas since they were tortured to produce them?
You can't!!! So the previous administration has left the barn door open, and their guilty pleas will all have to be shredded! Thanks Georgie for the quagmire!!!
Fascinating watching the emergence of Progressive versions of wingnuts. People convinced they're to return America to a state that never existed!
Where was the fidelity to the "rule of law" when every treaty with Native Americas were broken? When Japanese-Americans were forcible "relocated?" Union strikers beaten by police? Blacks turned away from the polls? Andy Jackson defied the Supreme Court, relocated and mass murdered Cherokees. Eisenhower sacrificed thousands of troops to blunt "weak on defense" political attacks. Nixon used CIA to spy on political opponents. Reagen illegally funded Contra terrorists. How many Presidents were prosecuted because "no-one is above the law?"
This isn't about patriotism, and your "high moral values" are myths.
Torture wasn't outlawed because of morals. There's nothing moral about war. No-one's "outlawed" it. Torture was condemned for the simple reason that it has perhaps never actually been used for any other reasons than to extract false confessions for political reasons or to satisfy sadists. In short, its nearly always abused.
The problem with us is we want simple black and white solutions, sound-bite wisdom, absolute assurances. We're sloppy thinkers -- with ADD. So our preferred solution to anything is absolute bans and prohibitions. Reality isn't that neat and orderly -- so we just ignore it. We prefer our myths to pragmatism. So our policy decisions and the representatives we choose are ineffective and unrealistic -- and we never learn.
Yes, the Left Wing Loonies are as bad as the Right Wing Wackos.
I agree that in society the ideal never existed, but that doesn't mean that it should not be something to strive for in all our interactions.
So your solution is to just let it go? No one said high moral values, we said American ideals!
Reparations were paid to the Japanese Americans interred, and laws were created to prevent anyone from being disenfranchised. Native Americans, unfortunately still receive little justice.
Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment, the Watergate burglars went to jail, Reagan should have been impeached, but was only lightly investigated by the Republican controlled congress, and since no one had the will to ask any follow ups, his "I do not recall" answers were left to stand.
Oliver North took the fall for Reagan and was convicted on three felonies.
Torture has been outlawed. The US has outlawed it for over 100 years, The Geneva Convention, the UN Convention on Torture all regard torture as a crime.
We do try to make the rule of law stand for something.
Your article restores clarity. Would you print off a copy and make Secretary Clinton take it to President Obama to read?
Why the Secretary of State? The Attorney General, Holder, is the one who should deliver the message.
TORTURE AND THE HIGHER LAW OF PATRIOTISM
Charles Krauthammer's article in today's TH "The Torture Debate, Continued" is a praisworthy excerise in situtation ethics where moral principles against torture, which he and most every American share, are cast aside in a national emergency; when love of country requires us to become Jack Bauers doing unsavory things like torturing human beings for the greater good of national security and saving American lives. Patriotism (love of country) is the ultimate national law overruling what is written; the "Higher Law" of Martin Luther King who broke the written Jim Crow Laws to end racial discrimination and advance national morality and American ideals of justice and equal rights. If Bush and Cheney broke the law with the application of waterboarding to al-Qaida terrorists-whether or not it saved lives-then it puts them in league with men like Martin Luther King and like him deserve the highest praise for their actions.
Now that is a piece of crooked reasoning worthy of Dick Cheney. Are you his apprentice?
Jim Crow Laws WERE the national morality, Einstein, that's why they were enshrined for 100 YEARS and praised from the pulpit, long before your college of TV was even invented. Ending Crow didn't impinge on the rights and welfare of others or dismantle a mythological threat. It ended a chapter of American hypocrisy and wounded a brutal reality.
Take your higher law nonsense and move to Iran. You'll fit right in there.
Charles Krauthammer's article in today's TH "The Torture Debate, Continued" is a praisworthy excerise in situtation ethics where moral principles against torture, which he and most every American share, are cast aside in a national emergency; when love of country requires us to become Jack Bauers doing unsavory things like torturing human beings for the greater good of national security and saving American lives. Patriotism (love of country) is the ultimate national law overruling what is written; the "Higher Law" of Martin Luther King who broke the written Jim Crow Laws to end racial discrimination and advance national morality and American ideals of justice and equal rights. If Bush and Cheney broke the law with the application of waterboarding to al-Qaida terrorists-whether or not it saved lives-then it puts them in league with men like Martin Luther King and like him deserve the highest praise for their actions
twisted, MLK did what he did as an act of civil disobedience and therefore accepted the punishment, if you want to be exempted from the consequences then it is not civil disobedience. MLK acted to uphold the 13th and 14th amendments. Bush Cheney acted in violation of the 5th and 8th amendments. Krauthammer then divorces the conduct from even the test of whether or not the torturers were right about its efficacy and need in the specific situations. So long then as Obama feels he is doing something of great benefit to the country, whether he is right or wrong, he is free to violate any law or constitutional provision and Krauthammer will have to praise and not criticize him. anyone want to bet CK does the opposite.
Well done.
Yep. I'm pretty sure this is the most disgusting thing I've ever read in these comments. Torture is now patriotic, huh? War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. Hate is Love. This article is a wake up call that our nation is losing its moral compass.
"Moral clarity" sounds dangerously close to a GOP talking point.
America has lost it's soul. I never thought I would see the day when officials would line up to appear on television and heartily defend government sanctioned torture. We pursue war all around the globe and have more of our citizens imprisoned than any other western nation. Meanwhile our own auto industry and manufacturing base has gone by the wayside. Heck now they say we can't even support a newspaper industry. That would really make the government happy. Nothing like secrecy to enable the government to continue it's despicable ways.
Unfortunately moral character is exactly whats missing in our politicians, Republicans and Democrats.
While this is exactly what we need, it won't happen because many democratic representatives were informed but did nothing. Complicity would become a major issue for incumbents in the next election as well as threaten the administrations majority and ability to get anything done. Self preservation trumps principle.
NOT GOING TO HAPPPEN! Pelosi has already locked into her lies, she and other democrats have their fingerprints all over the very things they have been bashing Bush for. As it turns out, the noise is for show only since any closer look will shine the light on them... Washington is bought and paid for, both dems and republicans, the best government that money can buy.....
So where should the shrine be built?
The National Mall?
Or Tejas?
My personal vote is the National Mall. I'm thinking they could redo the Lincoln Memorial.
This writer is also using clever semantics to frame your thoughts for a desired response. You want moral clarity? Try no man is above the law. When you start down that road to despotism, and thinking that leaving it all behind you as if it never happened, callinmg that moral clarity is to flip it on its head.
I know what moral clarity is. Defending our right to hold accounable those who committed war crimes, and in so doing murdered at least 100 detainees and untold human rights abuses. and to do nothing, is itself a crime..
I don't think so.
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