Letters to the Editor
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I Agree
I've been solidly anti-war from the first glimmers of the possibility we'll go into Iraq. I think Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld et al lied to our country and need to be prosecuted for this. I think the war is the most terrible mistake of this young century.
That said, I think he's actually right -- The US is a republic (rather than a pure democracy) at least partially because we want to put a little distance between the passions of the people and the actual decisions. To some degree, our elected officials, to be actual leaders, do need to use their judgment as to what's right for our country. Every four years (for the president/vice-president) or six years (for Senators), we get to have another say as to whether or not they're doing a decent job.
While a huge number of people were against the war when we started it, it still was supported by most citizens. Yet we accuse Senators who voted for authorizing it of having made the wrong decision, because we expect them, based on the information they had, to know that the majority of their constituents were WRONG. I completely agree with this standard -- I think leaders are effective when they govern based on what they think is the right thing to do, rather than the popular thing to do. Our issue here is not that Cheney disregards the will of the people (because if he was disregarding the will of the people in the direction we believe is right, we'd herald him as a hero), but rather because he's a cynical, megalomaniacal, murdering SOB. And, more importantly, because on this topic (among many others), he's wrong.