I agree that it is a very powerful essay; on an emotional level only.
He cannot credibly sustain his arguments by oblique references to "polls", "88% of americans" & "a recent poll". He compares todays loss of freedoms in the US with the McCarthy era without evidence. Similarly comments such as "the compliant press", "A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline", "It (the public) is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear."
The line that bin laden is allowing Bush to escape scrutiny of, amongst others, "its reckless disregard for the world’s poor, the ecology" is just a fanciful construct.
Similarly the imagined parent/child conversation is weird, and the bumper sticker in California, so what? Is California a hot bed of right wing extremism?
He would have gained more credence if he had gone to the trouble of supporting his opinions with facts. He has squandered the opportunity to argue a proper case with nothing more than an anti bush outburst.
