Posted by
malize on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 6:34:55 PM
"not convinced...reasonable doubt" these are the words a liberal I respect used to describe the results of the Army's investigation into the stories and allegations made by a soldier and published in the New Republic.
{Link to news Story) However those four words could easily be applied to the views of many a liberal regarding GWB's administration, the US military, the US Government, Tillman, 9/11, Katrina, et al.
Thus the true damage done to the American psyche by the lies and distortions and undermining of credibility.
I'd like to put all the blame for this on the door of the loony left conspiracy theorists...and they certain do their fair share...but the foppery of the current Administration which seems to want to sabotage its own successes doesn't help either.
Of course it is deeper than what we would commonly attribute to politics...our ceremonies, traditions, and institutions are also damaged by credibility lapses - the right to an anonymous and secure grand jury process for instance. Or the "leak" from prosecutors/investigators. It is all fine and dandy when it is someone else, but can you honestly tell me that you would want it in your case? When we are sacrificing impartial justice to our preconceived guilt or innocence views...why not just have mob justice and be done with it?
Both of the major political parties and each of us as individuals are responsible for these credibility problems. When elections are close - we get conspiracy theories about missing votes or rigged/hacked machines...just as frothing at the mouth crazy as certain right wing conspiracy theories in the Clinton years.
However "not convinced" and "reasonable doubt" are the subjective measures of base credibility...and many on the left barely accept the nation itself as a credible or legitimate entity, expecting them to make the leap of credibility for those across the political divide seems so fanciful.
I'm sure the stock response of certain people will be to lay this at the foot of GWB...which is ignorant, as he is as much a victim of this process as those who came before.
The truth of this is that since the shattering to the core of the American psyche in the 60's - the process of undermining the pillars of American cultural indoctrination (Ceremony, Education, Service...of which only one remains -> Service)...combined with final fallout of the removal of frontier...the nation has lost some vision of itself.
We need frontier, we need to get into space in a big way; and we need to re-invent an "American" culture for persons to acclimate to...there is no such thing as African-American, Chinese-American, French-American, Mexican-American, etc. this world of hyphen American is just stupid -> you choose to be an American you are an American, you speak English, you use Dollars, you produce a good or service, you raise your kids to be Americans and do your best to teach them right and wrong and be respectful to themselves and this great nation, it's traditions and ceremonies.
So many people don't do these things...but they are the things that count the most when push comes to shove. We all should be Americans first...and we all seem to loose sight of this sometimes. Even people like me who believe it should be this way can loose sight of the American forest as we skirmish amongst the partisan trees...imagine how nearly impossible it is for those who were never taught respect for the nation to pull themselves up to a higher place and see further than the next tree.