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Thursday, January 8, 2009 12:00 AM

W. and the damage done

President Bush inherited a peaceful, prosperous America. As he exits, Salon consults experts in seven fields to try to assess the devastation.

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  • Thursday, January 8, 2009 08:41 AM

    Guilt is Wide Spread

    Is it mostly Bush’s fault? Is it mostly Clinton’s fault? While I agree that Bush is an idiot, and Clinton is dishonest, since there seems to be plenty of good arguments in support of blame for any political leader we want to pick, let’s step back and consider that perhaps the root cause of the problem isn’t the personality at the top. Perhaps the root cause is the political system itself. It sure seems to me that most politicians now base their “leadership” decisions on a combination of the following three things: (1.) What will most likely garner them reelection or campaign contributions. (2.) What will garner them personal power. (3.) What will garner them personal wealth. These politicians most all abdicate responsibility to constituents in favor of personal benefit. We have allowed this to happen because we allow and encourage professional politicians in support of the mistaken notion that we are best off with a professional in office to represent us. D, or R, or I, or L, it doesn’t matter. We don’t need professional politicians. We need amateur politicians. We need politicians that we all face the near term reality of returning to live and work along side members of their community. I am pretty sure that a system that incorporates a one term limit on every elected office would go a long way in correcting the root cause problem.

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