12 Sep, 2011
Cagle Post » 9/11 And Its Great Transformations
Cheney, as much or more than anyone else in the post-9/11 period, used the loopholes in our system, the lack of nerve in Washington and fear created by that day to transform this nation slowly into something we would not have recognized as recently as the late 90s or dawn of the 2000s.
We became a harder people. Less forgiving. More on edge. No longer our brother’s keeper. More fanciful.
Along with President Bush, Cheney made it mundane to operate prisons overseas, beyond the reach of due process. House GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor thought nothing of demanding budget cuts to offset the costs of helping those whose lives were destroyed by Hurricane Irene. The response of Texas Governor Rick Perry to a drought in his state is to pray for it to go away.
Meanwhile, President Obama, whose campaign of hope and change was exactly the antidote to the cultural angst that became the norm in post-9/11 America, has not only continued many of the Bush Administration’s civil liberties violations. He has actually added a few gems of his own that even Bush didn’t try, such as condoning the assassinations of American citizens without due process.
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