The United States is caught in a moral and ethical vacuum, a plight recognized by the rest of the world but to which too many Americans seem oblivious. Any objective observer who examines the course of events within the United States of America and elsewhere at the instigation or insistence of the US government is aware how ill conceived and simply wrong the decisions and direction of the country are. Yet with this blindingly manifest wrongdoing, the so called leadership of the US government persists with an obstinate conviction that it is acting out of righteousness. The Bush administration, having lost the confidence of a majority of the populace in the world now turns to empty sophistry and claims that "history" will judge him more kindly.
As a famous philosopher stated, however, “in the long run, we are all dead.” It is the damage that we do while alive that truly matters to the living. And therein lies the rub of the moral vacuum. To do the right thing, it is necessary or at least very helpful to know the difference between virtue and evil. The ability to distinguish between true public service and self serving venality can guide policies and actions with potentially global impact. President Bush seems to lack the capacity to distinguish, or if he has the capacity he does not care to use it.
Moreover, the current Administration has been infested with sycophants and cronies who suffer from the same debility. Without any functional moral compass to guide them, they search for or concoct the policies and plans that seem to them expedient. This flies into a conundrum because “expedience” simply connotes a faster or easier means to desired ends, regardless of the consequences befalling victims along the path. When those “ends” are morally bankrupt and fashioned by persons without knowledge, experience or wisdom, the methods used are likely to be flawed and misguided as well. Thus the methods may be "expedient" but toward no useful goal or purpose except perpetuation of misguided and dysfunctional policies.
In so many cases during the past five years we have seen example after example of misconduct that ranges from petty pride and blind arrogance to blatant and felonious behavior conducted by members of the Bush Administration. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in many respects typifies the kind of ethical corruption and moral paucity that characterizes the Bush Administration. The man appointed to be the chief law enforcement officer and principal protector of democratic and Constitutional freedoms has repeatedly shown a disregard for that responsibility. Gonzalez helped craft a memorandum that gave support to the use of torture by US government agents, claiming that the principles of international law embodied in the Geneva Conventions were “quaint and obsolete.” He saw nothing wrong with taking such a position contrary to the highest principles of global justice. Gonzalez rushed to the sickbed of a seriously ill and heavily medicated Justice official seeking to coerce approval of an unconstitutional domestic spying program that the White House wanted, and saw nothing unethical in such conduct. Gonzalez came before Congress and perjured himself about a White House backed plan to fire US Attorneys for purely political reasons, yet insists that he has done nothing wrong.
The President was reluctant to accept the resignation of Gonzalez from his post as Attorney General, or so it is reported. Bush also believes that his good friend and ally has done no wrong. Certainly, a devoted counselor who advised the Administration top officials on methods for violating international law and humanitarian precepts while avoiding prosecution for war crimes should be applauded and not condemned, right? An Administration loyalist who deliberately looked the other way while White House functionaries openly violated the Presidential Archives Act by conducting business through a clandestine e-mail system operated by the Republican National Committee and included communications with high Justice Department officials is to be rewarded and not roasted. Indeed, President George W. Bush assessed Gonzalez as a “man of integrity, decency and principle” who had been hounded from office for political reasons. It is not quite clear what the “political” reasons might be when top Republican Judiciary Committee members opined that the lack of honesty and integrity displayed by Gonzalez bordered on the criminal.
The crisis that the United States of America currently faces is not simply the lawlessness and venality that has been taking place at the expense of American freedoms and its public fisc. The true crisis is the lack of moral consciousness of its leadership that fosters and encourages corrupt decisions and actions. In Psychological parlance, the condition would be deemed “sociopathic.” One who is without regard for social norms of right and wrong and acts without regard for the adverse and potentially lethal consequences of his or her actions on others is a sociopath. How else to rationalize the conduct of Gonzalez, Bush, Rove, Cheney, Libby and others?
Perhaps the greater danger and worst potential damage arising from the present crisis lies in the failure of Congress to fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to hold these malfeasors accountable and block their further destructive conduct. Instead of forcefully blocking harmful and counterproductive actions and policies, Congressional leaders seem content to tolerate the Administration’s continued prosecution of illegal and ill conceived policies and operations. Treating the Bush Administration in this fashion is a bit like treating Jesse James and Al Capone as wayward children who just liked to steal things and maybe kill a few people if they got in the way. Any responsible and rational person knows different and would deem it necessary to stop such conduct and hold the transgressors accountable.
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