Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

96 S politics and governance
we must be prepared to accept a changed system in which the
will of the people is subsumed by good manners and fearful politics.
As long as this new democracy prevails, little will matter
beyond the will of the president.” (2008, p. 46)
I do not believe, however, that this is the right, or even a necessary,
course. President Obama has other choices, including a
thorough investigation of the many irregularities and illegalities
involved in the recent dramatic expansion of presidential power.
A clear, accurate, and unobstructed record of the Bush years is
important, not for purposes of political revenge but to set the
record straight—our own version of “truth and reconciliation”—
and to restore the offi ce of president to constitutional standards.
Many will disagree, saying that learning the truth would be
unnecessarily divisive or a waste of time in the face of more pressing
business. To the contrary, I believe that we the people, Republicans,
Democrats, and independents alike, will need to know the
truth in order to reestablish law and order in the highest levels
of government and rebuild respect for the offi ce of the president
now tarnished by the systematic abuse of power. That restored
presidency is, I think, a prerequisite to the transformation necessary
to meet the challenges looming ahead. We, the people, will
need to know that we are being told the truth and that we are
being led by competent, law-abiding, scientifi cally literate, farsighted,
and intellectually engaged public servants who are not
beholden to what Theodore Roosevelt once called “malefactors
of great wealth” or to any cause beyond the public good broadly
conceived. To enter into the long emergency without an accounting
for recent presidential abuses is to invite worse in even more
diffi cult times to come.
Looking ahead, it is reasonable to assume that U.S. relations in
the Middle East will continue to vex the best minds and subvert
our best intentions. Many experts believe that terrorist attacks in
the United States aimed at the grid, the Internet, cities, ports, or