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January 26, 2006
Power vacuum
“The year of feeling powerless.”
That is the way a reader of my entry on the cancellation of The West Wing characterizes 2006. I am tempted to say, “Please, it’s only January,” but I know how the reader feels.
For those who see George W. Bush as a president leading the country in the wrong direction, and I count myself among them, hardly a day passes without depressing news. What makes me feel so powerless at this moment is that it is almost pointless to object.
Anyone out there want to write the editorial against the Alito nomination? What’s the point? Bush said Justice Antonin Scalia was his model for Supreme Court appointments, and a majority of voters gave him a new term – and a Republican Senate. It’s too early to be certain, but it is possible that the Supreme Court will soon have four Scalias, making center-rightist Anthony Kennedy the new swing vote. And who knows how long Justice John Paul Stevens, who turns 86 in April, will hold out? Among other things, I think Alito’s appointment is a giant step backward toward the days when abortion rights were afforded to only rich women and their daughters. But apparently this is what the electorate wanted, and any protest against it is a whimper in the wind.
Anyone want to write the editorial challenging Bush on his claiming of executive privilege to keep secret what the White House knew about Hurricane Katrina and when it knew it? Be my guest. Bush established a regime of secrecy in the White House at the start of his first term when his vice president met privately with energy bigshots to establish the administration’s energy policy. Five years into Bush’s presidency, it’s hard to believe the public would judge Bush’s energy policy a success. But the electorate gave him a second term, so secrecy it is.
Anyone want to write the editorial pointing out that this conservative administration has meddled to ill effect in local education and in big federal social programs? Or that these conservatives have abandoned fiscal responsibility? Or that the Bush White House’s claims of bringing democracy to the Middle East are inflated?
If you think these are partisan observations, I disagree. I see no leadership among the Democrats – no eloquent voice presenting an alternative that will turn heads. There is not the slightest sign that the November U.S. Senate elections will produce some check on presidential power. Instead the Democrats give us boilerplate opposition and ceaseless trimming.
The White House, its compliant Congress and its increasingly compliant Supreme Court are sucking up all the power. Those who oppose their ideology and their policies have every reason to feel powerless.
Posted by Mike Pride at January 26, 2006 10:47 AM
Comments
Well put, Mike. Except that all observations these days are partisan. All motives are ideological. All actions are immedicately suspect. There is no rising above it all. Not for Democrats. Not for newspapers. Not for you & me. That's what makes me feel powerless.
Posted by: Brendan Wolfe at January 26, 2006 02:25 PM
My point exactly.Thank you.
I am of an age that has seen quite a few elections. But I have never felt so hopeless,so helpless so surprised as I was last time around.
I do not understand how thinking,educated,intelligent people can blindly accept mis-information,platitudes,brutality,dicrimination and their own destruction without question.
It's not just Washington. There is an atmosphere of omnipotence and self righteousness that permeates our government on all levels. Even in our fair State.
Where is our "silent (majority?)".I myself am fairly active politically. I write to your paper, I write to my (well they aren't really mine)representatives. I call, I email, I do calls to action but it seems like my actions and those of others like me are fragmented...we can't seem to pull together.
But we are all of the same mind-crying for leadership.
I'm frustrated because I know things have to change for life as we know it to survive. I want to make them change. But like Brendan(above)I feel, and am, powerless.
Posted by: Joan at January 26, 2006 06:10 PM