More Outrage

The almost-mainstream media (aMSM) reports on the lies that George Bush, Dick Cheney and others of this administration openly present to the public. Publications like The Nation, The New Republic, and Harpers, et al, are willing to call the plays as they are. Meanwhile, the MSM will resort to using the word "lie" only when it has a cover, as in "Ex-Cabinet member claims that President Bush lied ...." The MSM will use the word "misled" or maybe "deceived" but are reluctant to use "lied" as an active past-tense transitive verb.

While I find the MSM's fear to be disappointing at the very least, I am rather appalled at the quietude of the public. It seems that the population is unable to rouse a feeling about the state of things. It remains comatose, bathed in complacency and self-delusion.

The actions of this administration are impeachable and have been so repeatedly. When Lewis Lapham can call for impeachment in the cover story of Harpers magazine, any doubts about the legitimacy of claims of wrongdoing have been called to the floor for reckoning.

Yet, the public remains silent, watching the wreck of the life it has been taught to know and cherish and seems to think will automatically perpetuate itself forever based on some intrinsic goodness. It is true that the ability of the Congress to call this President and his mean-spirited administration out currently remains out of reach. This is because the elected members of the Congress largely view their obligations to the public as secondary to those of the lobbyists and the corporate world. It is not true that this is an inalterable situation.

If the members of Congress would learn from those who employ them that they are to be issued a pink slip, their allegiances would be called into question quickly. We know this because as the 2006 election inches closer, we see ripples in the rank and file Republicans who know a "hot" issue when they see one. They know that the Dubai port control issue is one of percepton, a perception that could cause trouble back home. Suddenly they "stand" against the President, wanting to "investigate" the issue. They know that this will give them a cover back home with the voters so they can remain in power and return to suckle at the money teat back in Washington.

If they were to know that they would not be returning or would have to answer honestly for their record and their actions, it is possible that the Congress might break step with the administration and call this President out.

It perplexes me as a father that people tolerate lies from the highest officials in the land. Countless times I have seen parents become indignant and outraged by the lies their children have told them. Full of anger they admonish, scold, even punish their children in these most poignant of betrayals. Yet, when confronted with the same form of betrayal, not once but repeatedly, not harmlessly but literally lethally to our soldiers, not unintentional but fully premeditated and emotionlessly executed, from their elected officials, they roll over and play dead.

Where is the outrage? Where is the end to the complacency? Where has the desire gone to be in control of our own destiny? Where is the community necessary to a population united in government and purpose?

If we allow a lower standard for our politicians and elected officials and let their hypocrisy run freely over us, what message does this send to those we strive to teach the ways of good citzenship and fealty? What double standard are we perpeuating on our own children? How are we betraying them?

Where is the outrage when these crooks can insinuate themselves between the messages we teach our children and the reality those children see us live? This isn't about political parties, its about trust, the bedrock of any civilized society. In our own it is receding faster than the ice shelves off the coast of Antarctica.