Reason 2: Incompetence

If the latter image is the quintessential symbol of the president's mendacity, though on display through an agent, this one best distills the essence of his incompetence. There are others, of course, which I'll feature in forthcoming posts. But this one manages to convey so much. It's as iconic as the kiss in Times Square at the close of World War II. Against the sincerity of that image, meaning that it calls forth in us the emotions of its subjects, this image is noted for its irony. On viewing it, we experience emotions nearly opposite that of its ignorantly and incompetently beaming subject.

Reason 1

Q&A

(Many excerpted from Digg, where the responses are mine.)

Q: Incompetence? Absolutely. What can the American public do about it? Nothing but wait until January 20, 2009.

A: "Well, we could do this."

Q: From someone named skyscape: "yes, nothing, so stop this bashing day and night if you know nothing will come out of it. A smart person sees he cant do anything about something, and he moves on, but the dumb bastard sees that he has super power to change the world, and gets burned over and over."

A: skyscape to the Founders: "Sure the King is a brute. You keep ranting about it, throwing tea into the harbor and writing pamphlets. Nothing has come of it, and nothing will. What a bunch of dumb bastards."
skyscape to Gandhi: "Yes, the Indian people should have self-rule. But why bash colonialism day after day - going on hunger strikes for crying out loud? Nothing has yet happened. How dumb."

Q: The left just hates Bush and will rant about anything and everything he does. He's a lame-duck president, so why can't we move on to focusing on the new candidates?

A: Let's focus for just a bit longer on the current occupant of the White House who may yet find a way to entangle us in another war in the middle east. After all, his management of the war in Iraq is costing us (and our kids, and their kids) a cool half million a minute and thousands of lives. It's just plain dangerous, in my view, to take the focus off of this man and his cabal.

Q: This will be about as effective (and funny waste of time) as the "9/11 general strike".

A: If at first you don't succeed, quit. Nice political theory.

Q: From toxicity: "great idea! lets just stop working and bring the economy to a crawl. that'll show him!"

A: Exactly toxic - too bad no one told that Gandhi guy about your theory of the disutility of nonviolent protest. As others have pointed out, there is a huge cost in *not* changing course. Billions of dollars to carry on for an unending series of Friedman Units, untold damage to our ability to affect international relations in the future, and the damage to our own rule of law, the backbone of our once-thriving economy: all of these, and much more, represent the costs of doing nothing.

Q: Why should we do anything since only Congress has the power to impeach?

A: Read the Keizer piece, and then reflect on history before arguing that because only Congress has the legal power to impeach the president (and vice-president) a mass action by the 65%+ Americans who believe this President is inept and dangerous will do nothing. America was not founded by waiting for politicians to come around. India was not freed by waiting for politicians to come around. Maybe you believe that our system of government is not threatened by the Boy President. I do.

Link of the day. And yes, I appreciate the irony. Can we do better?

41 Days

I've decided to try.

We have 41 days until November, 6 2007 - the first Tuesday in November. On that day Garret Keizer, writing in Harper's magazine, suggests Americans participate in a general strike. No work, save for the essentials, and no consumption.

For several months now, I, like many others, have had discussions with friends and colleagues about the perceived hopelessness of forcing any change to the policies of the Bush administration or advancing any serious investigations into its many failures. Slim majorities in Congress make any substantive rebuke or course change difficult, perhaps impossible, despite overwhelming public disapproval of Bush and the war. So what to do?

Well, I've previously argued that what we need is a focal point. One day of "national accountability," when Congress all but shuts down and we in the public do whatever we can to turn complete national attention to our failures and to recommit to making it right, through accountability, international engagement, and a restatement of our democratic principles. An unambiguous outcry of dissatisfaction. As if with a sharp intake of breath, America must ask itself whether it will change.

Keizer calls for a general strike on election day of this year. While I would say that it would be a "call to account," his instincts and reasoning for the day and manner are expressed in words better than I could have written. Keizer knows this may well not happen and that nothing might come of it if it did. But to those who have asked what we can possibly do to change this sorry state of affairs at which we've allowed ourselves to arrive, he says, and I'm quoting from the essay, "Well, we could do this." After all, he says, it's been done many times before, by those with arguably less time and and fewer resources - and even without the organizing instruments of email and the web.

Despite the odds against it, I'm willing to try. One thing I'll do is update this page, gradually adding to the list of specific concerns that compels us, among other things, to follow Keizer's prescription. Exhibit A:

Feel free to join in and leave some comments. Remember, this is our time, and the responsibility for upholding the vitality and meaning of America falls completely and heavily on us. What will you do?