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(In the time after September 11th. the Neo Con administration, newly in the white house and supported by a majority in congress and the senate, made a lot of critical mistakes. Chief among them is letting their ideology filter their observations, guide their thinking and ultimately rule their actions. Nothing is more dangerous (as we have seen in the past few years) than a government that seems to believe it's own rhetoric. Given the pattern of ostensibly baseless assertions, unsupported accusations and conclusions that amount to an infinite regress of therefores, I feel certain that if the facade was ripped from this administration, it would reveal a guiding principle of stark arbitrariness.
I believe Bush when he says that his relationship to God guides his decisions. I think it is comforting to this middle aged, alcoholic, underachiever in school and the oil business with an early history of rebellion and an unclear record in the air national guard, to have and enact certainty in his life. I applaud people who are able to trancend the difficulties that many of us face in modern life. But misapplying that certainty, that narrow view in the role of president, is the issue here.
The world is filled with nuance, uncertainty, and complexity. It requires intellectual rigor, broad mindedness, egalitarianism and the willingness to examine ones own assumptions, to wrestle with ones own conclusions and emerge with a greater truth. Let us not forget that the office of the
President of The United States is a public one. The President is a public servant working in the service of, for the benefit of and representative of the will of the people.
Idealism, with all of it's positive (if some what unrealistic) associations, is really the central issue for me. It clouds judgment,
obscures issues and exaggerates description. It also tends to obscure intimacy. Any public servant should embrace the most simple form of intimacy: empathy. An informed political life is based in great part on the cultivation of empathetic perceptions, the ability to embrace a person's experience, and concerns. Now confront the effect that a lack of this trait would have if applied to the policies of a President. Sound familiar? Dis-inclusion, insularity, secrecy, disavowal, stonewalling, dis-information and an ostensible lack of respect for the principles of transparency and responsibility are hallmarks of the current administration.)
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