Friday, October 14, 2005

Treason is in the Eye of the Beholder
The views of a former president

I found a really good quote of Theodore Roosevelt on The Nation website: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=28113 Bush & Company has tried to brand all critics as traitors in the war against terrorism, while concentrating power in the Oval Office. These actions are what is really "morally treasonable," according to former (Republican) President Roosevelt.


"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public
servants," Roosevelt explained in 1918. "He should be supported or opposed
exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his
efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service
to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should
be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is
exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does
right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To
announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to
stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but
is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be
spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the
truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."


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