Then ignore that part. But I stand by it: in my opinion George W. Bush, and the total lack of response to his gross misdeeds, did more damage to America and the American spirit than any single event in US history. We are still paying for our unwillingness to censure or impeach a President who abused his power like Bush did. He misled us into a bloody, expensive, unnecessary war (Iraq), legalized torture, legalized indefinite imprisonment without trial (Gitmo), outed a CIA operative to punish a political enemy, got an old pal to take the heat for it, then commuted the pal's sentence when he was convicted (Scooter Libby), implemented a warrantless wiretapping program at the NSA, he praised the grossly incompetent head of FEMA (who's inaction cost lives) during Katrina. That's just off the top of my head. These aren't accusations, or 'fanciful theories' (the defining characteristic of an ideologue - I looked it up), they are just things that Bush did, which he did openly and which are a matter of public record. Bush set the example that many leaders both public and private are still following to this day.

I credit Bush with one thing though: I never identified strongly as an American before his presidency. Before Bush I never really stopped to think what being American meant, I just took it for granted, and it only made sense to me when, one by one, the tenets that had been so strongly ingrained in me, beliefs that I didn't even know were there, were taken away. Americans don't torture people. We don't initiate wars (well, we do, but not on my watch). We don't imprison people indefinitely without trial. We don't invade people's privacy without a warrant. We don't degrade and demean our citizens for security theater.

And we don't let people who produce nothing but paperwork extort money from those who create real wealth.

Careful. Righteousness has a way of turning on itself.

You should ask yourself what exactly you want to accomplish here, because nothing will be accomplished here. So if that's true, then ask yourself, "Why am I spending time making these posts?"

If you examine your reasoning, you'll be forced to conclude that you spend your time on this because it makes you feel good, and for no other tangible reason.

So, if that's true, then a better question to focus on is "Why do we choose to be ineffective?"

Yes, I wondered about whether to reply to the GP at all. I posted for two reasons: first, I've never articulated precisely how I felt about Bush before, and second, I realized that it has a real explanatory connection to the patent problem. Ever since Bush started openly flaunting basic standards of decency it seems that many, many others have followed suit, and to devastating cultural effect. Myhrvold is just one particularly potent, obvious example.

Does stating that do any good, or help anyone other than me? Our sick culture of power makes modern venality feel like a scary, dark, unknowable trend that came out of nowhere and has no source and no solution. Connecting Bush makes it feel more like a normal (if unwanted) social trend that has ordinary, identifiable roots and solutions. I think we consistently underestimate the presidential influence on other leaders--perhaps because in our sophistication such influence feels cliche. But I believe that his effect was real, it is lasting, and it will take a long time and a great deal of effort to heal those wounds. Sharing that hypothesis is fundamentally hopeful - if we know what happened, we can fix it.

And I like fixing things.

I noticed that Gitmo is still open. Seems like such a simple thing to accomplish. Wasn't a promise made over 4 years ago to close it? How do you reconcile that on your watch?

Bush is a war criminal, plain and simple. That actually makes him a lot worse than rapists and murderers.