Here's the thing... Of all the varying scandals and screw ups that involved the government of the last 30-40 years... How many of them truly came completely out of nowhere? That is to say, how many issues were NEVER vetted by the public?
Example, and one with a broad and deep impact on Americans and the world... The Bush II Iraq war.
We, I assume, were mostly all old enough to know what was happening at the time, right? So, do we remember that literally everything those that opposed the war predicted came true. Does anyone remember that? For an extended period in government, society and media there was a "debate" about war. And one can try to dismiss culpability on the public/voter's part by dragging out that old saw from both the Left and NOW the Right: Bush Lied And People Died.
Were it so simple as to make the average person feel good about themselves. Flatter the ego and the moral superiority that's frankly a baseline for 99.9% of all human beings. Too bad it's a terribly simplified and utterly intellectually bankrupt position to take.
Because just because the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and the Republican Party as a whole at the time sold you all a bill of goods DIDN'T MEAN YOU HAD TO BUY IT. Yeah, Bush lied... And then a CHOICE was made to believe those lies. To support those lies. To shout down any voices that dissented from the initial push for war and then to continue sinking blood and treasure into an endevour that was and is never going to turn out the way those that sold it to us claimed.
Now, if anyone can honestly remember that period... Was the counter narrative to what the Bushies were selling just... Not available? Was there NOT a giant media back and forth covered in literally every news and entertainment outlet available at the time? Was this not front page news, on every website, talked about from the first thing in the morning on network TV until the the late night hosts' monlogues going into the next day? Cuz... I distinctly remember that. I remember that all the downsides, all the calling of the lies and nonsense the Bush admin. was spreading, the international response from our allies... This wasn't hidden from you or me or anyone. You didn't have to request a FOIA disclosure. You didn't have to check "the dark web". You didn't need to have some "source" within government.
All you had to do was buy a ****ing newspaper.
What an American invasion and occupation of a majority Muslim country would do in general, the implosion of Iraqi society in particular, along with how such circumstances would do nothing but bolster Iran and make it more regionally influential, how this would unleash terrorism, that the ultimate wish to impose a Jefforsonian Democratic-Republic upon a society with none of the functioning apparatus to support it...
None of this was hidden. None. This information, and why it was more reliable and believable than what we were sold by the GOP... You could have found it. And if you were exposed to it, you and anyone else could have weighed it on it's merits.
The majority didn't. And the majority went along with it for a very long time. The sad truth is, Americans didn't turn against the war because it was always morally incorrect. They didn't turn on it because it was an idea that was always dumb and those that proposed it should have been laughed at publicly and often. They didn't turn on it because it was obvious that our armed forces were being asked to do a task that they shouldn't have been ordered to in the first place.
Americans turned agianst the Iraq war because after a certain time they/we were waking up to the fact that we were "losing".
Which of course all of that could have been avoided if, I don't know... Americans actually paid attention to the "FACTS" and the "EXPERT ADVICE" that was easily found everywhere at the time. And no... Emotions clouding judgment isn't a ****ing excuse. Yeah, it happens. Yeah, it can be hard to know when to cut off the passions. But yah know what? Explanations at some point can't just become blanket excuses. And one of the things an adult needs to know is in fact when is it time to stop being led around by your emotions, especially when what lies in the balance is so very, very important, like questions of war and peace.
What is the limit of the public's culpability in a Democratic-Republic? At what point in fact is it not the "poor put upon" voter that is just somehow not responsible for the choices it makes, often consistently? Because the ****ing cherry on top of all of the bovine excrement we had to be exposed to during the Bush years, remember... The nation STILL re-elected him, despite the obvious ineptitude and corruption that was apparent from the very start of the military action in Iraq.
We made a choice as a nation via our votes to REWARD serial stupidity and un-wise policy.
We make choices. Stop pretending that we don't is what I would say.
