Dr. Forbush Thinks

The Bush administration is paranoid of leaks and has done everything imaginable to shield itself from anyone who may be “disloyal” in the family tradition. This White House does not believe that the people have any right to know and understand what their government is doing.

If you look at what the Republicans did to the Clinton White House you can understand their paranoia. Instead of becoming more forthright and honest to avoid scandal they have decided to become more secretive to avoid scandal. The lack of scandal in the Bush White House doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Instead the leaks have been tightened and people fear the repercussions of information getting out.

There is always hope that one disillusioned White House insider will give journalists the facts needed bring this administration to face honesty.

Wait a minute, didn’t Richard Clark come forward? And, weren’t there some soldiers at the Pentagon that told us about the pre-planning of the Iraq invasion? And, Paul O'Neill wrote a book which told us about the inner non-workings of the White House. But for some reason the majority of Americans didn’t believe these things. I heard Judith Miller give a talk telling us that the US congress actually signed laws that gave Saddam Hussein 8 of the 11 billion dollars questioned in the food-for-oil program. But the news seems to be centered on the other 3 billion.

It seems to me that we have people outright telling us what is happening and no one believes them or cares to. If we add to this the radical right’s continual accusation of journalists in general the public begins to doubt every news story that is out whether it has evidence to back it up or not. It certainly would subtract from any credible anonymous source today. In today’s environment anyone one can claim anything and deny everything and the people just go along for the ride.

Is there any doubt that our Democracy is headed for hard times?