Assuming that this editorial is correct, and Bush believes that our democracy works because our society is inherently “good,” I’d really have to start questioning the man’s intelligence. Until now, while I often find myself rolling my eyes at some of the things he says, or I disagree with his opinions about certain things, I’ve believed that Bush is at least in the top quarter of our population in intelligence (though, I must admit that a large number of our population watches “Reality TV,” which leads me to conclude that my computer’s MOUSE is smarter than a good 1/4 to 1/2 of them).

No one can look at our society and say we’re somehow inherently good. There are (relatively) good people out there (Coming from a religious stance, I don’t believe anyone’s really “good” in an empirical sense, but most people aren’t COMPLETELY stupid, selfish and evil), but our society seems to give way too much power to those who’ll take it… unfortunately, more often than not, those are the worst offenders.

Our society isn’t any more “good” than any other — it’s the system of checks and balances, the idea that NO ONE has so much power that they can turn this nation into a place I’d be ashamed to live, that keeps our nation from being just as bad as any of the worst nations in history. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems that those checks and balances are being broken down.
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