Posted on 06/20/2006 10:27:51 PM PDT by neverdem
The second of three excerpts.
How America has been put at grave risk can be understood by charting the evolution of three facets of our society captured by the phrases "culture," "crusade" and "partisanship." Throughout our history, when the excesses from each skewed our judgment, the nation fell into great danger. Failure after World War I to make a just peace in Europe and the Vietnam debacle arose from these excesses. When better angels prevailed, such as during and immediately following the Second World War, the nation could be inspired to greatness.
American culture today has become coarser reflected in part by our language, standards of social acceptability and practice of politics along with other examples too numerous to mention. In government, a gradual but steady corruption of this culture has taken place distorting and crippling good governance. Lobbying abuses are a dismal case study in how excesses in culture have been manifested and standards of what was once appropriate behavior replaced by the crassest forms of political greed rather than carrying out the public good.
Highly ideological, well-funded interest groups and constituencies are further symptoms of this pernicious trend. With agendas that may depart radically from the broader common welfare, these groups grow in number and influence and drown or crowd out much of mainstream America. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have become polarized and more hostile and adversarial to one another.
This is also a culture in which accountability of and in government has virtually disappeared. No high-level heads have rolled over Iraq and the erroneous certainty of the presence of WMD; for the unconscionable abuse of enemy combatants in the war on terror; or for the failed response to Hurricane Katrina. And, equally depressing, Congress's lack of oversight has produced virtually...
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
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NO high-level heads have rolled over Iraq and the erroneous certainty of the presence of WMD; for the unconscionable abuse of enemy combatants in the war on terror; or for the failed response to Hurricane Katrina.
Huh? Didn't Michael Brown get axed from FEMA over Katrina. The CIA lost a lot of power over the WMD mistake. Personally, I don't think America has a problem holding people accountable.
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