I am trying not to sound too condescending when I say hurray for the electorate in joining the rational world who saw Bush et al. for the evil incompetents they are some six years ago. Let’s just forget that you were late and embrace the idea that you showed up all, shall we?
Seriously, you know a political party has gone astray when it rouses even me out of my torpor and convinces me to change my affiliation because the former group reminds me too much of the Nazis. That’s what we call a “bad sign.”
So, in sum, thank God for the overwhelming Democratic victory yesterday. Looks like 28 houses seats picked up and maybe enough Senate seats (decisive Virginia will go to a recount) to run both houses of Congress. Perhaps now we can roll back some of the more egregious legislation that’s been passed in the last six years. You know, like the kind that says the president can declare anyone a terrorist, hold them indefinitely without charges or access to an attorney, and torture them. Apparently most Americans agree with me that the above might be going too far.
Of course we’ve thrown trillions down the toilet of Iraq with nothing to show for it, or nothing positive to show for it, anyway. At least we can be happy that the warmongering fool Rumsfeld has resigned. (“Warmongering fool” is actually the nicest description I could come up with; the man should be criminally charged.)
Maybe I’ve got the post-election blues. I don’t feel as elated by the returns as I should. I couldn’t really ask for much more out of them than I got, but I fear that so much damage has already been done that it’s too late.
During a crucial six years for this country, a man with the brain of a poptart has been at the helm, and the consequences have been and will continue to be enormous. I think we’ll find that it’s now too late to avert many of the very serious ramifications of global warming. I think Medicare will go bankrupt circa 2017. I think we’re headed for a period of high inflation or stagflation. I think the US will be the victims of a major terrorist attack in the next 20 years, and the terrorists will cite as the motivation the US involvement in Iraq.
What will history say about George W. Bush? Probably that he attempted what he thought were great things but that he was undone by evil cronies and an intellect so small that walking and eating pretzels almost proved too much. The country is demonstrably worse off in a great many ways from when he took office. Two years of Democratic congressional control won’t change that, but it’s a start.