Bush Fatigue

In an excellent post yesterday, Glenn Greenwald expanded upon an NY Times report on the Bush administration's destruction of the CIA tapes. This follows Dahlia Lithwick's excellent ten-point summary of the Bush administration's worst lies and legal fictions. I read these articles and felt a moment of outrage... then numbness. Sad, miserable numbness.

For seven years, the Bush administration has lied blatantly, lied maliciously, and then lied again. The Bush administration has evaded or outright deceived all attempts at oversight from Congress and the judiciary, and they have concocted outlandish claims of "executive privilege" and "war powers" to conceal their wrongdoing. In the name of freedom, the Bush administration has secretly kidnapped hundreds of people from around the world--even here at home--and held them captive for years in secret prisons without charge, sometimes without telling anyone. In the name of justice, the Bush administration has tortured hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women. The Bush administration has turned our proud nation into a rogue state, hated around the world.

And yet, despite a mountain of evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, nothing seems to stick. They blame "a few bad apples"; they alternately claim ignorance and secret knowledge as it suits them; they impugn the character and patriotism of anyone who questions them; they invoke 9/11 to defend everything. They portray all attempts to find the truth as mere partisan attacks. They have gotten away with murder and the American public has yet to call them on it.

How is this possible? Why do Americans react, as I did, with sadness and numbness? Because they have managed to wear us all down, to make us all feel like helpless, frightened victims. No wonder those countdown clocks are so popular, marking time until Bush must leave office: we have given up hope of holding these bastards accountable and are just waiting for the nightmare to end. This national fatigue may be the most insidious legacy of this administration. But we can still fight it.

There is still time to impeach. And have a Happy New Year.