I found this in an old notebook recently. About three years ago, when I first started blogging, a major-party candidate for the Presidency set forth these values:
As President, I would set four goals for American leadership:
First, defeat the threat posed by terrorists, tyrants, and technologies of mass destruction.
The Bush administration’s activities have increased all of the above threats.
Not least in this category is that they have practiced invasion and pre-emptive war for as yet unacknowledged reasons.
Further, they have made it likely that the United States of America will re-initiate the use of nuclear weapons against civilians. This pattern is sickening. Sickening to us, that is. It is much worse than sickening to the victims of our behaviors.
Second, strengthen our alliances and ensure Russia and China are fully integrated into a stable international order.
The Bush administration has undermined our alliances, greatly weakened our credibility, and has pushed Russia and China into cooperation against us with a view to greatly weakening US prominence and influence in the world.
Third, enlarge the circle of beneficiaries of the growing world economy.
That “circle of beneficiaries” is shrinking painfully right here at home, not to mention what is happening in other places. The rich get richer – at a high rate of speed – and the poor get poorer. That is the recent Republican agenda, and it is still being vigorously pursued.
And fourth, ensure that life on our fragile planet is sustainable.
This is not even a matter of concern to our current leaders. They are making themselves (and the rest of us) a target for God’s anger at “those who destroy the earth.”
The source of the above four goals was Howard Dean (from the DeanforAmerica site of 2003). Unlike our current President, Dean at least could see and articulate appropriate values and objectives for this nation – and he displays integrity such that we know he would have actually pursued these clearly seen values.
But we have instead undertaken to violate all the values on that short, crucial list.
It is time for a serious repentance.
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