Politics just makes me sad and worried nowadays

[pmb]

Torture is not okay. Torture is, in fact, never okay. Which means that I read with ever-increasing disappointment the news that the current administration actively approved of and explicitly authorized acts which we have successfully prosecuted as war crimes in the past. This means that torture is not "a few bad apples", it is instead the

Comments

[amoken]

When did politics not make you sad and worried?

[pmb]

It used to make alternately frustrated, angry, and (very occasionally) hopeful.

When a nation is countenancing systemic torture, however, I give up. This next election will determine whether torture is a one-off aberration or sustained policy. McCain seems to be pro-torture (or near-as - see previous about the MCA) and that worries me a lot. It actually worries me more than just about anything else I can think of. You can't fix anything when a system is so fundamentally broken that it's torturing people with impunity.

[leech]

This means that I read http://electoral-vote.com with great trepidation, because it's looking more and more like the Democratic party is tearing itself apart in an effort to lose the fall election by as much as possible.

Polls taken in May reflect our current news cycle; I don't think they're terribly useful for predicting the results of an election six months in the future. Voter turnout in democratic primaries has been extremely high.

[akatchoom]

Thanks for linking "Little Brother", I'm heading out for a copy now.

[pmb]

There was a recent thing about how young adult is this totally ignored category of literature in which lots of good stuff is happening right now and where writers can actually make money. Also, "Little Brother" is quite good and I heartily recommend it to all.

[clipdude]

I have hope that, after the primaries are over and the Democratic Party has settled on a nominee, more states on those maps will turn blue.

I am disappointed in how negatively the presidential primary campaigns have been conducted. It's irresponsible. I believe that we should have vigorous primaries, but I don't think either one of these candidates truly believes it's a disaster if the other one becomes president, and impression you would not get from some of the rhetoric or campaign ads.

I find it especially troubling that we are having a serious debate about whether it's okay to torture people. A systematic policy of state-sponsored torture is wrong in a way that few things can be. I hope someday that those responsible are prosecuted. I doubt the U.S. government would ever do so, but even if one administration official responsible for torture were arrested and prosecuted while vacationing abroad, I would be happy.

[pmb]

Well, Henry Kissinger is unable to visit France, so there is precedent. Also, CIA agents have been arrested in Italy.

But yeah. A policy of torture is one of those things that is so wrong that I end up sputtering angrily and fuming when I talk about it in person. And yet, I don't think I'm irrational about it - I think it's an issue that everyone should be sputtering and fuming about.

[keystricken]

What? I thought arrest warrants had been issued, but the agents were long gone and America basically said, "Yeah, that's not going to happen."

[pmb]

I thought they were briefly held by police and then a deal was quickly brokered.

[snailprincess]

Sigh.

I try not to get too pessimistic. I think most things we fret and fear generally just kind of fizzle and turn out to be not so a big deal. But I'm pretty sure the end result of the last eight years will be the slow decline of the United States as a world power. That in and of itself I don't think is intrinsically bad, accept that I actually don't think there's anyone ready to step up and take our place. I'm not a huge fan of Europe and China and India certainly aren't ready.

I don't think Bush deserves all or even most of the credit for leading us down this path. Mostly I'm just frustrated and increasingly disillusioned.

[pmb]

I think Bush deserves most of the credit. People vaguely resented us during Clinton's era, but nothing like today. After September 11, 2001 there was a massive outpouring of support - freaking Le Monde published a front page stating that "Now We are All Americans" - we then invaded Afghanistan for good reasons to get at the people who flew planes into the WTC. Everything was still copacetic and the world was behind us. Indeed, most of our allies are still at war fighting the good fight in Afghanistan although we now ignore that whole effort and focus on our most recent boondoggle

[snailprincess]

My point is not so much that Bush didn't fuck everything up, it's more that he didn't do it by hijacking the country and taking us somewhere against our will. Sure everyone hates him now, but we elected him a second time after he'd made a lot of his big mistakes.

We the people, including voters, the media, everyone, were remarkably complacent along the way. I mean, I even blame myself. I didn't join any protests or do anything big to change things. I mostly just complained a lot.