The Path To National Salvation?

Ever since the election last November, when the United States Congress just barely turned from Republican domination to technical Democratic control, I have been waiting for things to change dramatically. Actually, not so much waiting as holding my breath and hoping. There have been improvements. But there seems to be an unrelenting creep of escalation to the problems in the Middle East. People keep dying. Games of verbal chicken continue to be played by untrustworthy fellows who leave me slack-jawed by their arrogance. Slack-jawed and afraid that these guys have their respective fingers on the buttons, or the red phones, or the suitcase called the football, or whatever other cold war era euphemism fits this contemporary brinksmanship.

I sometimes allow myself to focus on January 20, 2009 when we will finally see an end to the Presidency of George W. Bush. But I fear that I do not fully trust my fellow good citizens of this nation to elect the best person to lead this country out of darkness and shame. I sometimes fear that while President Bush’s approval ratings sink, that there are just too many folks who still believe in the ideology and Republican platform that got him elected (or selected) once and then reelected. And doesn’t it only take a single vote in every precinct to install a comparable president with a different face?

In the days following September 11, 2001, the entire world rallied to our side. Good people around the planet spilled out onto streets to show their love and solidarity with a nation under siege. A nation which hadn’t always done everything right, but seemed to generally move in well-intentioned and honorable ways. This administration destroyed that good will and sullied our reputation to the point of shame. This administration has worked tirelessly to assault and undermine the Constitution and all the good that has flowed from it for two centuries. They have even reached back the better part of a millennium to attack habeas corpus.

So today, I ask the question, have we reached the point where the only way to begin to reclaim our Constitution, save our national soul and begin to rehabilitate our image internationally is for the House to impeach George W. Bush and for the Senate to convict him?