Rise of the Anti-Hero, Part 12

Every 20 years or so we see the ascent of the Anti-Hero, a cultural embrace of the bad, the wrong, the... polar opposite of what we were all taught to believe was 'right'.
We are in another of those times, back when Lt. Col. Oliver North broke the laws of the land to facilitate and illegally finance a war on Communist subversion in 'our' hemisphere and to (in his mind) help free hostages in Lebanon by selling weapons to Iran, it was President Ronald Reagan who was the proverbial 'good guy' who would later look so confused in the dock testifying about the murky details of the Iran-Contra Scandal.
Now, we have another set of super-patriot bad guy anti-heroes close to being at the end of their terms in public service who will go away and perhaps, with a little luck will end up testifying before some committee about how they broke laws and subverted democracy to facilitate the War on Terror, with W as the confused ex-President pretending not to know what the guys down the hall were up to...
If the original Superman movie were made today, I wouldn't be surprised if good old General Zod was not only elected President, but he'd be the champion of defeating the subversive elements in our midst, including Al Qaeda, and there would be those apologists who would say, "But he got rid of the bad guys."