On Dec 4, 2008, at 11:34 PM, Lawrence Sica wrote:
Interesting but we have to be careful here. We need to be measured in
any pursuit along this course. Destroying the nation in pursuit of
this would be foolish. Sometimes the best is to let certain dogs
lie. That said I do think some sort of accountability needs to be
enforced, I am just not sure what.
Agreed in broad terms, but I'm curious what you have in mind with your
third sentence there. I think most forms of honest accounting of what
happened would not pose a threat to the nation. I can think of some
potential negative consequences, but I think they're probably smaller
than the consequences of letting the idea stand that Presidential
abuse of power on this scale is all right, as long as no sex is
involved and the parties all state publicly and loudly (if
unconvincingly) that they had the best interests of the nation at
heart. Okay, I re-read that sentence and see that my frustration is
seeping through again, but I think this attitude, internalized in our
media and much of our population[1] is really is a serious threat to
the very nature of American democracy.
I think that simply putting all the truth out there would be enough.
The political cost to the parties involved would be punishment enough
to reduce the chance of it happening again. More punishment than that
would be satisfying, but probably not realistic to hope for. I'd love
to see Obama simply detail a team to pull together the documentation
on all the non-classified (or declassifiable) activities that were
unconstitutional, and then just provide access to the records for
reporters (all reporters, including Fox, etc). There's probably a
Pulitzer or two in there, no need for the Administration to push the
issue.
But I'm digressing. Where do you think the threat of destroying the
nation lies?
-Patrick
[1] Are Bush approval ratings low because of all the unconstitutional
lawbreaking? Or just because he's losing a war, is obviously
incompetent, and the economy's bad? My guess is the latter, and
people just don't care much about the former.
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