The Price Of Freedom In The House Of Corruption

clipped from proteinwisdom.com Bush has been rightly excoriated by conservatives for his failure to veto, and for the social spending built in to “compassionate conservative.” At the same time, however — and even though I’ve been willing to pile on W about increasing government spending — I’ve had the nagging sense, which I’ve mentioned here on a few occasions, that Bush’s nearly singular focus has been what he sees as an existential battle between the west with its freedoms and those theocracies and authoritarian rules trying to launch a campaign aimed at re-establishing medievalist social contracts and fundamentalist religious law. If this feeling I have is correct, Bush’s tunnel-vision — which has to this point kept us safe (recall the feeling in the air after 911: when would the other shoe drop?) — came at a political cost: Dems and some Republicans problematized the war(s) against radical Islam to create leverage for getting what they wanted in exchange for their ultimate support for the war on terror.