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The Dartmouth
July 17, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Raising Voices Anew

To the Editor:

In a few days, President George W. Bush will be inaugurated for second term. Since winning a close election and gaining a greater congressional majority, he has claimed a mandate to ignore opposition. Sadly, his opponents seem to have retreated into a helpless confusion. Those of us who opposed President Bush in the election must accept the fact that he will be our president for four more years. But we must not accept his claim of a mandate to lead the nation in a direction that remains, to so many of us, clearly wrong. Despite the chance a second term gives a president to reassess mistaken directions , there is no evidence that this president intends to do that.

It is good that John Ashcroft is no longer attorney general; yet the new appointee is a man who provided legal rationale for policies of torture that have undermined the moral authority of our nation. And this is the man who is now leading the department of Justice? Colin Powell, the only member of the president's first cabinet who had substantial combat experience, and the only one who showed a modicum of resistance to policies that have proved inept at best and disastrous at worst, has been let go, only to be replaced by Condoleeza Rice, a person who seemed incapable of providing any independent perspective on foreign affairs. The persons most responsible for the fiascos of the first administration, namely Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, remain enthroned. Those directly responsible for implementing mistaken decisions have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

It will be impossible for many of us to share in the celebration on Jan. 20. We accept that a bare majority of the American people have spoken and we celebrate democracy's resilience. But the things that led so many of us to declare that this administration is leading this nation down the wrong path remain. Those of us who believe this must raise our voices anew. Since very few people in his administration or his party seem willing to say so, and since he himself seems incapable of acknowledging mistakes, we must continue to say, in every way we can, "Mr. President, you are wrong."