Brent Budowsky -- The Great Issue Of Our Times: America is a Big Country and a Good Country

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Brent Budowsky

In his latest farewell address, Tony Blair made a statement that reveals more than anything the poisons that have been injected in our politics today.

Blair said, the terrorists had attacked on 9-11 before anyone had thought of invading Iraq. He actually said that, an amazing falsehood since the neoconservative theorists had been pushing the Iraq war more than five years before 9-11, Vice-President Cheney had demanded intelligence information to prepare for the invasion of Iraq even before President Bush was inaugurated, and President Bush put planning the Iraq war ahead of killing Bin Laden even when warned in a presidential daily briefing about coming attacks against our country.

America is a big and good country, based on some big and good ideas, beginning with a respect for truth, a respect for the diversity of our people, a respect for the integrity of our democratic debate, a respect for the idea of an informed people making intelligent decisions in a country that believes the truth will keep us free.

How ironic, a British leader could utter such a total falsehood, with such a staggering contempt for truth, claiming that no-one had thought of invading Iraq until 9-11, which reveals so much of our dilemma today. Is this dishonesty or delusion?

America is a big country and a good country and at the heart of it all, is a respect for truth, and what we have lost, is this respect for truth. Nothing is more dangerous to our democracy than leaders who promote the disrespect for truth.

America is a big country and a good country, and at the heart of our respect for truth, is respect for each other, respect for the notion that Oliver Wendell Holmes called a clash of ideas. Nothing is more alien to our democracy than leaders who rip at the wounds of our divisions and tear apart the things that bring us together.

America is a big country and a good country, and there is no place for a Senator from Virginia who uses bigoted words and points to a fellow American with a smirk and says welcome to the real America. This is a man who does not understand the real America.

What is it about the poison of this politics where a Senator from Pennsylvania blames a child abuse scandal on liberals? What is it about the poison of this politics where a Senator from Montana speaks derisively about his Guatamalan employee? What is it about the poison of this politics where a Republican propagandist demeans even the widows of 9-11 and our President lacks the honor to condemn even this.

What is it about the poison of this politics where war heroes are slandered by those who never served? What is it about the poison of this politics where Hispanics are mocked because they sing our anthen in Spanish? What is it about the poison of this politics when gays are turned into demons by partisans looking for domestic enemies? What is it about the poison of this politics when newspapers are called traitors by partisans afraid of the truth?

Go back and read the talking points and the public statements when a brave man wearing our uniform publicly confronted our Secretary of Defense for not providing our troops with the protective equipment they deserve. For 24 hours the demonizing spin was directed in attack against the troops themselves, who were called whiners and complainers, by partisan spinners making cell phone calls from plush Washington restaurants, while they ate their shrimp diavlo dishing their dirt in talking points of war.

The President says, either you are for us, or against us, and like a law of nature fueled by a politics of poison and destruction, he turns virtually the entire world against us.

Even when the entire list of American agencies of intelligence agrees that the Iraq war creates more terrorists and more danger, the President uses 9-11 for a two week partisan tour claiming the exact opposite, and when the truth comes out, in the words of his own government, he then says they are trying to confuse our people.

There is a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans and it begins with the first principles of American democracy. At their worst, the Democrats never initiate this politics of poison and venom, this organized and systematic demeaning of our neighbors, and this organized and systematic contempt for truth.

America is a big country and a good country, and our people hunger for leaders who know it, and believe it, and understand why.

America is a big country and a good country, and our people hunger for a return to the first principles of our freedom, the respect for the integrity of our debates, the respect for the insitutions of our democracy, the respect for the very notion of truth itself.

America is a big country and a good country, where we are all welcome in the real America, where Lady Liberty raises her torch without regard to our color, where the Liberty Bell rings without regard to our religion, where the great documents of our democracy rest in our archives not as dead hands of the past, not as cheap words for the politicians, but as time honored truths to preserve, protect and defend.

America is a big country and a good country, and that is the case we take to the country, in this election year.

Brent Budowsky

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

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