I started this blog three years ago, accurately noting that, “The world needs another weblog like a hole in the head.” Early on, I was already feeling pretty unhappy about the administration — but, ever the optimist, while I was starting to grasp the full horror of their constitutional vision, I never imagined how incompetent and corrupt they would turn out to be.
I know people who treat their blogs as an important part of their professional career: as a way of making their name in their field, or as a way of creating a media presence in order to build a profile that might let them influence public policy, or as a serious scholarly endeavor. I’ve toyed with those ideas, but my goals are more modest. I’m having fun, I’m taking part in some small conversations, and I will have something to show to my children if they ever accuse me of being the 21st century US equivalent of what the last generation called “a good German.”
Let the record show that many of us cared about torture, about our rights and liberties, and battled against the destruction of our fundamental institutions. And if enough of us care, perhaps we can ensure that it will all seem like quaint over-reaction to the next generation.
OK. But note, it’s much more fun when some people will already listen to you because you have credentialed professional standing, as a law professor and an ICANN watcher. You fall into the category I call *local* celebrity. It’s often not much fun when the “conversation” is essentially ranting to oneself (of course, some people do that, that’s a case of survivorship basis – the ones who remain are the ones who enjoy it, and everyone else stops).
Just wanted to point that out because of the problems of blog evangelism.
Unfortunately, the record will also show that many Americans turned a blind eye to Islamic fascism and genocide in the middle east. Your children may not have a Judeo-Christian Israel to visit. They may see the use of nuclear weapons by Iran. They will look back with bewilderment at a time when senior citizens couldn’t carry medication onto planes, the police couldn’t listen in on terrorists, and prisoners with valuable information are pampered by US soldiers lest the ACLU sues.
History doesn’t blame Churchill, FDR or even Stalin for WWII. Many, including “good Americans” and “good Englishmen” did, and considered Hitler and the Nazis a “natural reaction” to “Anglo-American Imperialism”. I’m afraid that those who believe history will blame Bush and Blair for what is happening in the middle east are in for a big disappointment.
The appeasement camp of the 30’s have the deaths of millions on their heads. Indeed, how will children judge those who had so little faith in their fellow man that they hamstrung those that would stand against tyranny and genocide.