Issue #60
Last Update October 22, 2008
Commentary December 2007 It's easy to blame George W. Bush for all of the disasters that occurred on his watch, and criticize him for his attempts at dismantling the Constitution, but he couldn't have done it alone. His enablers and co-consipirators make a very long list. First and foremost is the Republican Party, whose loyalty to itself and its President exceeded its loyalty to the country. Republicans in the House and Senate, when they were in the majority, formed a solid barrier to any serious consideration of the legality and wisdom of the President's acts, and who seemed content, as long as their donors and benefactors were well rewarded.
The Congressional Republicans abandoned their traditional positions on fiscal responsibility, racking up huge deficits; on avoidance of military adventures, with a disastrous, unprovoked aggression against Iraq; on individual liberty, authorizing torture, governmental warrentless snooping and abrogation of habeas corpus; and on faithfulness to the Constitution, including a blurring of the separation of church and state and abandonment of the doctrine of separation of powers in favor of the imperial presidency. For a group of people that has lately taken to bemoaning Bush's abandonment of the "Reagan Republican party", they seem to have no recognition of the fact that all of these things were done with their active assistance.
Congressional Democrats are only slightly less guilty. Their spineless toadying to the conservatives, and their refusal to take a principled stand against the worst of GOP excesses, has paved the way for abuses to be validated (and in some cases hidden) without the kind of exposure that might lead the public to stop and think about what was being done in their name. What's worse, since gaining control of the House and Senate, Democrats have declined to use their power effectively. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have acted more as a dissident wing of the Republican Party than as the loyal opposition. The power to say "No" has been within their grasp even when the power to force a "Yes" was not, and the Democratic leadership (and a good portion of their followers) refused to use it.
Nevertheless, in the 2008 election, Democrats must be careful not to let Republicans get away with distancing themselves from the President. The failures of the past eight years were not Bush failures, they were Republican failures, and the public must not be allowed to forget it.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
To be notified of New York Stringer updates and new issues, click here.
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com
All content copyright 2008 by nystringer.com