Can our Republic survive Bush?

The Real Question:

"Taken together, these three speakers, one from the left, one from the right, and one who's served more time in service to this country than my students have been alive, lead us to a more troubling question than either Keene or Wilkins addressed: Can the US survive George W. Bush?

In short, yes. The American Republic is in little danger of collapse. That term is rightly reserved for nightmarish cases like Afghanistan and Somalia, places where the government essentially ceased to function and, frankly, all hell broke loose. No, the president's adventures in nation building may have caused civil war in Iraq, which may well lead to its collapse, but it does not yet fundamentally threaten the integrity of our own state.

In other ways, however, it is already certain that the America I grew up in will not survive the Bush presidency. Indeed, parts of it have already 'collapsed.' Re-elected on a divisive plan to tap into people's prejudices, states across the country passed laws and amended their constitutions to limit the freedoms of select citizens, solely because of the nature of their romantic attachments. This strategy left in its wake an America less decent, less compassionate, less free. "