When historians chronicle the decline of America,

[chieftain]

they will cite W as the man who put us on the slippery slope by :
- bankrupting the country;
- weakening the legal underpinnings of the middle class ( the New Deal );
- demoralizing the military with unwise adventures and worse execution;
- allowing the plundering of our natural resources;
- promoting the concentration of media ownership which eventually obscured objective analysis of events and dissolved into unabated right wing propaganda;
- frightening an uninformed populace into giving up their birthright of freedom created by our founders and defended by brave men and women throughout our history;
- besmirching our international reputation by resorting to the vile treatment of enemies , real and imagined;
- driving our friends into hostile alliances to counterbalance our arrogant and reckless use of power

This is a partial list . Is it any wonder we cannot abide what they are doing to the USA and the world ?

[salinen]

1. And all of these were puposeful

in order to destroy democracy for the new Theocratic Totalitarian Dictatorship. Welcome to the eleventh century.

[bullimiami]

5. i also believe they know exactly what they are doing.

Bush is a dangerous, arrogant, vicious little idiot but the architects they are not.

They are destroying with a purpose.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Ditto.

[chieftain]

16. The attacks on social and environmental protections

clearly are intentional . The cavalier treatment of our military mostly by chicken hawks who never spent a day in uniform let alone under enemy fire astounds me . You would think that these strutting imperialists would be more protective of their chosen tool of diplomacy .

[Ready4Change]

2. Looked at that way

I'd say Reagan would be viewed as having started it. Clinton will be seen as a road bump to the plan. Shrub as the finisher.

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Yeah...but...

He saved us from dem GAYS, and he kicked dem IRAQIS asses, and he's a MAN O' GOD, and he believes in the BIBLE so who cares?

I'm willin' to eat ALPO in my unheated trailer, just so dem GAYS aren't gettin' married, and they ain't takin' away my guns!

Goddamn libruls!

Chief, you are so right.

[Cicero]

4. Hey! Watch what you're saying!

a MAN O' GOD

Don't you know that's supposed to be:

"A MAYUN-uh, of GAWD-uh!!!!!"

Can you give me a hallelujuah? :headbang:

Later,

[chieftain]

6. Thanks . It is so depressing

to watch this clown as he struts and mugs while leading us down the path to ruin.

[MirrorAshes]

7. Very well said. This is his idea of "leadership", I guess.

And why isn't it obvious to everyone that this is happening? What will it take to make them understand?

[Radio_Rick]

8. I would give credit to the breakdown in the Social Compact during VietNam

1. The late 60's recession was the first recession where non-union white collar workers were laid off in relatively large numbers.

2. The use of the Southern Strategy - up North - to drive a wedge between blue collar white and blacks, and then between suburban white liberals and blacks.

3. The demonization of liberals and moderates by the GOP --- began with Nixon (McCarthy used the "Anti-Communist Left" and the "Religious Left" like Director Hoover did -- didn't like them or trust but used and manipulated them. Nixon demonized them).

I am returning in a round about way to my pet theory - that the beginning of America's downfall was VietNam. And Iraq is just a "badder VietNam" for our tattered society.

[Dirk39]

12. Hello from Germany,

just a question: was there really a recession within the USA before the oil-crisis in the early seventies? I hear this for the first time!?

Dirk

[chieftain]

13. I believe there were at least 2 recessions

during Ike's terms in the 50's . The prevailing Republican and mainstream thought was economic downturns were inevitable parts of the business cycle . JFK and liberal economists came along with a new way of thinking that included targeted tax cuts and deficit spending as ways to break those cycles . LBJ's policies of guns and butter put the country in a terrible jam that we only climbed out of during Clinton's terms . W's policy of guns and tax cuts are going to have similar devastating effects on the economy as LBJ's did.

[chieftain]

15. There are a lot of historical and economical

forces which are driving our decline and you outline earlier signs that American hegemony was going to be short lived . My point is that rather than reacting intelligently to these forces this fool is making decisions which lead inevitably to our country's deterioration . The irony of course is that W is the darling of those who truly believe that we have a divinely ordained mission to civilize the world . Instead he has put us in an irretrievably worsening position .

[signmike]

9. Historians will - the printed history books will not.

[chieftain]

11. Now not only am I depressed but scared too.

the bad news is you may well be right .

[mitchtv]

14. Something's got to give

Im hanging on to my composure by a string,
I won't see my freeper brother,Thank god i can enjoy my garden.
I am bored with Jacko, martha, scott and lacie, robert blake. Next up Phil Spector!
What waiting for Valerie Plame? torture chambers? the famous rape rooms? sorry no news there.

[ProgressiveConn]

17. Historians will look back at Bush as the man who intentionally destroyed

the country. They will combine the PNAC crew with the "starve the dog" crew and Bush, Cheney, Rove, and co will go down as the single biggest traitors in American history.

[DerekG]

18. The writing was on the wall by 1950

In creating the National Security State--which established a permanent wartime economy--Harry Truman destroyed our republic. But yes, I believe Bush will be seen as our Nero.