I hate it when I don’t have time to pay attention to the news. This explains, of course, the state of many Americans. Someone from my regular reads pointed me to Bill Moyers show of two weeks ago on impeachment. We usually record the show, but had somehow missed this episode. You can watch it online, and if you haven’t, you should. What’s most striking about the show is that the conservative, Bruce Fein, is perhaps more strident about the necessity to impeach Bush and Cheney than the liberal is. Both of them say that if we don’t impeach them, we risk undermining our democracy is irreparable ways. The things that Bush has done have sought to shift power to the executive branch and to make the presidency look more like a monoarchy–the very thing the revolutionaries and our founding fathers fought against. Bush treats us like children, John Nichols said.

Our leaders treat us as children. They think that we cannot handle a serious dialogue about the future of our republic, about what it will be and how it will operate. And so, you know, to an extent, we begin to act like children. We, you know, follow other interests. We decide to be entertained rather than to be citizens.

Well, you know, and Bruce makes frequent references to the fall of the Roman Empire. You know, that’s the point at where the fall comes. It doesn’t come because of a bad leader. It doesn’t come because of a dysfunctional Congress. It comes when the people accept that– role of the child or of the subject and are no longer citizens.

Let’s be citizens, shall we? And start making a lot more noise about our spineless Congress and get some accountably. They work for us, remember.