A Letter to President Obama
June 11th, 2009 |
Daily Rant
by Rowland Scherman
Dear Mr. President:
As you must recall, when the Bush Administration came into power, they ignored or trashed evreything that the Clinton Administration had done. They wanted nothing to do with anything having ties to Clinton. The results of their ignorance and pride are what you now have before you — a country in peril.
For you to maintain, in any way, any facet of the Bush agenda is to invite an unstable base upon which to fulfill any plans, progressive or not, that you campaigned to enable.
When I read that “Obama maintains Bush plans for (fill in the blank)”, I cringe. Republicans will continue to thwart your efforts unless you show them that the manifest vicissitudes (I use a gentler word than necessary) they compiled will be dealt with in compliance with the rule of law. They must face the consequences. Otherwise they will never be drawn to your ideas, because you will have looked weak.
I hope this is not the case. Not “looking back,” I fear, will embolden future governmental miscreants. Not only that, but allowing a free pass to the likes of Cheney makes you look complicit — and that cannot bode well for you.
Perhaps some democrats are also involved. That makes no difference. They, too must face the scrutiny afforded, and demanded, by law.
You told us you wanted transparency in your administration. So far, that hasn’t been the reality. Your first act should have been to abolish the PATRIOT Act, which was the antithesis of “patriotism.” Yes it was a dire time for the country and many signed it without even reading it, but that time is passed, and the unfortunate document has been shown to be based on a tapestry of lies.
The country was in a perfectly adequate position to thwart the 9/11 attack, but the characters involved failed. Cheney, Rice, and the rest let us down with a lackluster performance of their duties. Then they tried to show strength and resolve by changing the rules — to enhance their own power. That is what really scared this country.
My best to you. I hope you get to see this note.
Rowland Scherman
Orleans, Massachusetts
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Tags: A Letter to President Obama, looking back, the Bush agenda
June 11th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Start by coming clean with the torture photos.
Get moving on cleaning up the Justice Department, especially in Alabama.
Reaching out in a non-partisan way is fine PR, but it is obvious the Republicans will fight you behind your back and on talk radio and Fox News every time you turn around.
You won. It’s time to bring on the change you promised and kick some ass…
June 11th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I agree with my old friend Rowland. Nothing I can think of done by the Bush administration needs to be preserved.
Of course, Obama cannot single-handled abolish the Patriot Act. He could call a news conference and ask Congress to repeal it immediately and then sign the repeal legislation as soon as it arrives at the White House.
He could also, for instance, direct that remaining Guantanamo detainees against whom there is enough evidence to be tried in regular US courts.
That the Obama administration has fallen down by preserving any features of the Bush regime is, however, explainable, even if not necessarily ethical:
1. As documented in Gene Healy’s 2008 book “The Cult of the Presidency,” incoming presidents, or their advisers anyway, are loathe to give up powers accreted during the previous administration, no matter the ideological differences. Healy notes that, with a handful of exceptions, no president since Teddy Roosevelt has voluntarily surrendered new powers or claims to power.
2. The Obama administration is replete with Washington insiders, although there are fewer than a typical administration. Insiders, whether Democrat or Republican, have that peculiar Byzantine worldview that comes from living inside the Beltway for too long a time. Their thoughts, words and deeds are, at root, pretty similar when studied closely.
3. Obama has many fish to fry, and he’s getting a lot of cold water thrown on the campfire already by the Republicans on Capitol Hill. Practical politics dictates that he do as much as possible to neutralize them and stay focused on his agenda. If he spent any significant time focusing on the horrors of the Bush era, he would both lose that focus and, into the bargain, put the Republicans back into the limelight, even if they were there to defend what cannot be sanely defended.
4. The president, as Obama candidly admitted today at a Town Hall meeting about health care in Green Bay, cannot simply dictate to Congress what he wants. The 535 ego maniacs who sit on Capitol Hill were elected in their own right, and cannot easily be trumped by a grand executive program. In fact, the last time that happened was during the short-lived honeymoon of Lyndon Johnson, and the only other time it happened was during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
All that said, I still agree with Rowland 1000 percent. Unfortunately, the president does not yet see how deep and profound the hope is that Americans place in his new administration. The insider-obstacles, insider-thinking, bureaucratic inertia, etc., could all be swept aside if Obama would fashion a five point or ten point agenda and campaign for it, as he did today for health care reform in Wisconsin, around the country.
If President Obama would do that, Rowland Scherman would not have to write laments such as this one.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Considering the increasing levels of violence from the radical right, as I said a few months ago, Obama is loath to roll back the spying powers because he needs it to stay alive. The good news there is the direction of the prying telescopes and bugs is gradually being turned away from little old ladies in peace groups toward the anti-abortion militia.
Unfortunately, our congressman in Birmingham is in the pocket of Alabama Power, ATnT and the Business Council, so he is not in the right political place on these issues. Sad, but true.
He is also big friends with SPLC, which does good work, but now also is on the federal dole to spy on the KKK. Unfortunately, this does not get us liberal bloggers off the hook around here.