Is it just me or have the last eight years seemed like a nightmare? 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, a total disregard of the constitution, a horrifying change in the direction of our foreign policy, Hurricane Katrina, and finally the collapse of the American economy. We won’t even get started on issues like health care, education or the environment. This is not the America that was described to me when I was a child. This is not the America where I was told I could grow up to be anything if I put my mind to it. No, this is not my America – it is George W. Bush’s America.It’s amazing that a little more than eight years ago all of these things were different. We had a fun-loving president who enjoyed the occasional extramarital affair and a cigar like most every other president before him. He was an intelligent, progressive man who played the saxophone on Arsenio Hall and jogged everyday to McDonald's for breakfast. It was an era in American history that was free of war, torture and economic catastrophe. It was a time of prosperity, and the idea that what we were doing was somehow right. Yes, Ol’ Willy Clinton sure knew how to be an effective leader, but poor George W. Bush just never had a clue, and that sick bastard Dick Cheney, along with the rest of the sociopaths in his administration, never gave him a chance.
For the last eight years we as Americans lived under an administration that ruled on faith, fear, greed, stupidity, deceit, and hate. Aside from the sick religious freaks and right-wing nuts that hate everyone and believe America is the only thing that matters in this world, although they don’t really believe any of that either, no American could have ever truly believed that Bush was taking this country in the right direction. I mean, if the last eight years had been a movie, which they are now kind of thanks to Oliver Stone, Bush would have been Darth Vadar. Or
maybe Cheney was the true villain, but the fact is Bush was the final decision maker. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a movie, it was real life, and unlike the characters in the movies we actually have to deal with the problems that Ol’ Bushy has left us all with. And unlike the movies, Bush will most likely never pay for his actions.
As Americans the one thing I did find throughout most of Bush’s administration was that while most people despised him, no one really wanted to believe that an American president could have perpetrated such crimes on purpose. And maybe Bush didn’t, but somebody in that administration sure as hell did, because as dumb as most Republicans look, they are not complete idiots. I mean, they did figure out how to use 9/11 as a spring board into Iraq with no-bid contracts and get rich schemes for their companies. But that is what I love about America, because even after all we have been through, we are still so naïve and trusting of our public figures that we allow ourselves to believe that even blood-thirsty murders aren’t so bad. We don’t trust walking down the street at two in the morning, but we trust our elected officials, even after they have failed us and disgraced our country.
But as happy as I was to bid farewell to Bush as a helicopter flew him off into the horizon on the afternoon of January 20, we cannot, as honest Americans, just allow him to disappear without any type of accountability. If I was to get drunk and get behind the wheel of my car and kill an innocent motorist on the road, I would be charged with manslaughter and thrown in prison. But if Bush makes a decision to start a war that leads to hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis deaths and the torture of thousands of others on purpose, he is aloud to go live out the rest of his days in peace and prosperity with family and friends and million dollar homes.
As much as I would like to just chalk up the last eight years to a bad dream and just say good riddance to Bush forever, as an honest, hard-working American I cannot in good faith do such a thing. We need to hold these thieves and murders accountable for their actions, if not for the innocent who suffered due to their actions, for the sake of all that America stands for. If we allow this administration to just go home without any accountability for what they did to our country and our people, we are just inviting another, possibly more deceitful administration to rise to power in the future.
There are a few senators out there who are currently calling for truth and justice, as it has been proposed that we offer every member of the Bush administration immunity if they are to come forward and tell the truth about what happened over the past eight years. If they do not tell the truth or decide not to talk at all, then they will subject themselves to possible criminal charges that, in their case, could be punishable by life in prison or even death.
This is our chance to make an example out of our elected officials and truly hold them accountable for their actions. We do not allow for average Americans to act negligently and badly
without repercussions, nor should we allow our public officials whose crimes affect our society and the world on a much larger scale to walk free without any consequences. So I hope this is not farewell to Mr. Bush but hello to Justice. The only time I expect to say farewell to that filthy swine is when I am watching his lifeless body hang for his crimes. Only then will, “Freedom and
Justice for All,” have meaning again.
