How to Judge Government Changes

The world has witnessed many changes in the USA Government over the years but the magnitude of changes during the 2000 Bush Administration have been astounding, to say the least. Of course, change for the better can only happen when things change, so change in and of itself is not necessarily bad.

So, lets look at some of the recent changes and compare them with other governments that exhibit those characteristics.

1. Reduce or remove decision-making rights for a subset of the population. This has been done and is still being attempted by such actions as remove women's right to decide when and if an abortion is necessary. Another example is Bush's desire to put gay hatred text in the USA constitution.

Let's see, what governments does this sound like? How about the Taliban's Afghanistan, or Iran, or how about the Al Queida?

Reducing the rights of a select subset of the populations is not a step in the right direction.

2. A fundamental premise of the USA constitution is the separation of church and state. Bush is trying relentlessly to remold the government and its services based on his personal religious leanings. The number of examples is so large that I won't attempt to exemplify any at the risk of diminishing the importance of the others. A quick search on Google will show numerous examples. Pick your favorites.

Now, let's look at some examples of governments that have poor or no separation of church and state. The easy examples are the two examples listed above. How about other examples? How about the reason for the premise being in the constitution in the first place? Everyone knows, at least they did 200 years ago, that religion is not something a government should be deciding for its people.

3. Deceipt and/or failure to correctly interpret intelligence has made a terrible mess with regards to Iraq. Bush has also done a remarkable job of using America's post-9/11 patriotism against the population. The rampant lies and deceipt is easier when the people want to support their president.

Now, let's see, what kind of countries have notoriously untruthful leaders? Does the USA really want to be associated with such governments?

Finally, we can all hope that the USA is not too far gone to recover from their foolishness. However, future leaders will know that the American voters are spineless and that they won' t be required to demonstrate anything better than the worst, unless the voters make an example of the unacceptability of his style of government.

I wish America the best, but can only wonder. . .