Bush’s Last Stand

Poor Harriet Miers. I really wanted to see her appointed to the Supreme Court. Sure she was an inexperienced, unqualified, political, campaign-employed crony, with deep roots in the Bush Administration’s seemingly boundless corruption, but she was harmless. She would have stepped into the position with her head down, intimidated by the authoritative legal voices all around her, quietly enjoying the cushiest job a lawyer ever could, a fringe benefit of befriending George W. Bush.

But conservatives cried, rightly, that she was a crony, picked because of loyalty and not because of credentials, that she had no experience in matters of judicial law, and her job these past few years involved mostly damage control for the President’s political campaign. Liberals were so astonished that the President’s own party turned on him so decisively that they mostly watched as Harriet Miers was taken down so rapidly that by the time this Boondocks cartoon strip hit the stands, it was out of date.

It would seem lately that Bush has had trouble making decisions, and the shrewd political manipulation of Karl Rove is becoming ineffective.

It leads one to wonder how all this time he’s known just the right thing to say, and now he seems to always know the wrong thing. Maybe his lust for war really always was about a tap on the shoulder from his father’s old friends. Perhaps Bush isn’t as socially conscious as he lets on sometimes, (he seemed to lose interest in gay marriage pretty quickly) and that’s to please the leaders of his party in the south and midwest. Maybe comedians and cartoonists everywhere have been right all along and the President really is, well, just stupid.

Recent developments suggest that the corruption of the Bush administration will be dealt with. His poor leadership has finally been realized, and years-long investigations into misconduct are finally bearing fruit.

President Bush’s popularity may sink lower. He may become a liability for the Republicans.
As his polls slip from hurricanes and his cabinet is cleaned by independent investigators, to save face many Republicans may distance themselves from the Presidency and even participate in removing the President or his people. Even his closest allies may abandon him, denounce him, and let him go down with the ship. A trumped up rich boy that screwed it all up just like everything else in his life.

It would seem that liberals have cause to celebrate now that Bush has been discredited as a President and the Republican Party is fractured. But beneath all the political tricks and rhetoric, the real problem plaguing this country is not George Bush, nor his administration. We see now whom the President must ultimately answer to: the movement of social conservatives that he helped cultivate.

Even without George Bush, the dogmatic morality of modern conservatism will continue to appeal to Christians. It has grown far stronger in recent years as war has been declared against us on Religious grounds. To respond on those same grounds has proven incredibly inflammatory, yet our country has reveled in it. How long will the influence of this philosophy be felt? How strong will it survive the problems plaguing Bush?

The Bush Administration is going to try and accomplish one last thing before it loses all the credibility and power it’s built up these past four years: it has one last opportunity to keep this country on the track it set it on, so perhaps the Republicans can find a way to pick up where they left off.

The nomination of Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., is the Bush Administration’s parting insurance policy: an extremely conservative judge that will solidify a right-wing court through the next administration. For five years now, the most dreaded moment of the Bush presidency for liberals has been the Supreme Court nominations, that this deeply conservative administration would have an impact on legal philosophy for a generation. It is even reasonable to imagine that Rove planned this development since the moment the Miers nomination was announced: the democrats wouldn’t dare oppose a second nominee.

The danger of this appointment is not about overturning Roe v. Wade, that would be a foolish political endeavor which would accomplish nothing but unleashing a fury of angry citizens. It is about the shaping of the United States over the next several decades. It is about the behavior of the court and its regard to people and their guaranteed rights.

For example, perhaps abortion would not be outlawed, but legislation that would require women to notify their husbands before having an abortion would be allowed to stand. And the scope of this administration has been much larger than the social issues like abortion and gay marriage that many Christians seem to find so appealing.

Consider the erosion of civil liberties since September 11, 2001. Much of the offensive legislation has yet to be dealt with in the courts, and may not be until after the confirmation of Alito. In a court led by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Stevens and Alito, would these laws necessarily be viewed as unconstitutional?

The recent decision Hamdi v. Rumsfled granted rights to U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants. But three dissented, finding little or no fault with the administration: Scalia, Stevens and Thomas. If Roberts and Alito were inclined to vote with them, three could easily become five.

And perhaps that would only be the first step. In the last four years this country has become a very different place very quickly. While the shift toward the right may slow down now, it has not halted. Everyone concerned about civil liberties and the political future of this country needs to stay on their guard, because we’re not out of the woods yet.

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