Thank you, Dubya

There is one thing, and only one thing, that I'm grateful to George W. Bush for: my new sense of political engagement.

For most of my adult life, I have not been especially politically inclined. I thought politics was boring and that it didn't really affect me, and that nothing was as certain or as enduring as the pretty-much-okay status quo. I thought that American freedom was just a fact of life. I thought civil rights were a part of the scenery and as enduring as Mount McKinley. I never thought about the "Rule of Law" and thought the Constitution was an important historical document.

It wasn't until the 2000 election that I began really paying attention to the political arena. I was appalled at how the electoral college and the Supreme Court handed the presidency to the candidate who lost the election, at how the Florida recount was subverted. I felt an enormous sense of betrayal and a longing to live in a democracy where the will of the people was honored and respected.

On September 11, 2001, I was in a bookstore when I heard people talking the way they do when a great horror is unfolding. I decided I didn't want to hear about it from a stranger, so I dropped everything and went home to watch the news. All the way home, I kept saying to myself, over and over again: "Not while that guy is in office, not while that guy is in office." I didn't know yet what had happened, but I knew that Dubya would make whatever it was much worse. Talk about a prescient moment.

I had read enough to be firm in the belief that Dubya and the neocons would exploit the situation to accrue more power, to advance their antigovernment ideology, to twist the very foundations of the republic. I can't imagine a more horrific response to that national tragedy than the one we have witnessed these past seven years.

Under this president we were deceived into a preemptive war that many knew would turn into an unwinnable quagmire. We've seen the abandonment of habeas corpus, the introduction of torture and extraordinary rendition, unprecedented government secrecy, unwarranted surveillance of American citizens, the undermining of our government's checks and balances, and a "unitary president" who clearly considered himself to be above the law. The list goes on and on. The disasters that have befallen us during Dubya's term in office—9/11, Katrina, the collapse of the economy—are nothing compared to the disaster that his reign has been.

Thanks to Dubya, I now know the importance of the Rule of Law. I know that tyrants count on people not paying attention. I know what the founders of this country knew: that tryanny is always a threat and must always be guarded against.

Thanks to Dubya, I know that the Constitution is a precious gift, not only to the people of the United States but to the people of the world, and that it must be defended by all people who want future generations and people around the world to enjoy the rights and freedoms I used to take for granted.

Dubya taught me that what the ACLU says is true: freedom can't protect itself. U.S. citizens who love truth, justice, freedom, and peace have an obligation to pay attention, to engage, and to actively defend the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law.

Thanks to Dubya, I've learned that we can't afford to just leave this up to the people who like politics.

My hopefulness about the incoming administration is tempered by my understanding of how horribly our government has been mangled in the last eight years.

I know that the office of the presidency now holds far more power than the wise founders of this country ever intended. I know that power like that is too much for any one human being to safely wield, regardless of how good or noble that person's intentions.

I still fear for the life and well-being of my beleaguered country. We're a long, long way from restoring the republic that I so foolishly thought would endure without my ever having to exert any effort to defend it.

I feel a lot like we're picking through the rubble of the last eight years, that the great virtues extolled and established and written into the Constitution by our revolutionary founders have suffered terribly from a sustained all-out assault. We're covered in dust and debris, wounded and disoriented, with only a vague sense of who we are and who we are meant to be.

I will celebrate this week along with everyone else. This is a great moment in our history. But it will take way more than one person, one inauguration, however historic, to put this country right. It will take the clear-eyed, fierce determination of all those who love freedom and justice to come to the aid of their country.

Neocon Jobs

McCain keeps saying he's for change, and last night he said he isn't George Bush. But the ideology he clings to as though he were a drowning man grasping at a dead weight for support is the same ideology that landed the U.S. (and the rest of the world along with it) in the huge mess it's in now.

McCain flip-flops more than any politician I've ever listened to. He barely says a sentence without contradicting himself. He's going to freeze spending. He's going to pay down the deficit. And he's going to lower taxes. Does he think we're really buying that? Who does he think he is: Houdini?

I am deeply offended by his obvious contempt for Obama. His facial expressions, interruptions, and the rolly eyes trick are petulant to the point of absurdity. If he won't listen to his opponent during the debate, what makes anyone think he would ever listen to any of us?

During the last debate he looked like he was on the verge of blowing a gasket every time he had to shut up and let Obama talk. The man can't control himself, and he can't control the rabble who come to his mob fests. Do we want four years of him appealing to the lowest common denominator, motivating people with hate and fear and preposterous allegations of terrorism against anyone he doesn't like or who doesn't agree with him?

And what does the tenor of McCain's and Palin's rallies say about their leadership? Obama has the good sense to quiet his supporters when they boo McCain. "We don't need any of that," he said. "What we need is to vote." And the crowd cheers and leaves its uglier sentiments behind. Whereas, after McCain and Palin fan the flames of hysteria, fear, and racism, cries from the crowd of "terrorist" and "kill him" pass by with nary a blink nor even the mildest of rebukes. Sure, one day (out of how many?) McCain tries to calm his supporters' fears, but he does it so ineffectually that it just frustrates them. When he said Obama was a decent family man, his rabble actually booed him. Great leadership, that.

And what's with his whining about a "character attack against Governor Sarah Palin" from Rep. John Lewis? Lewis had the temerity to call McCain and Palin out on their blatant appeals to fear and racism, so McCain's response is to paint himself and Palin as victims? Huh? And even though the Obama campaign had absolutely nothing to do with Lewis's remarks, McCain wants him to repudiate them? Huh? Next he'll be saying that his campaign deserves kudos because no one has been using the "n" word. That tactic would be only slightly more transparent than the tactics McCain and Palin have been using. Does McCain think we just don't get it? Does he really think we're just that ignorant? He called Lewis's remarks "beyond the pale." That's just what I think of his appealing to the mob's racism. Utterly beyond the pale.

No way this guy should be in any position of leadership much less in the most powerful position on the planet. Anybody with anger management issues like his shouldn't be trusted anywhere near the red button. And Lord help us if something happened to him and Palin took his place as president. I couldn't agree with Tina Fey more: I'd have to leave the planet, or at the very least barricade myself in the house and unplug my TV and my computer for fear I might catch a whiff of her.

I know there are many who feel that at 72 McCain is too old to be president. I do not. I know there are some who are plenty vigorous and sharp and capable at 72. I wouldn't want to exclude them from running for the presidency or to vote against them just on the basis of their age.

I don't have nearly as much of a problem with McCain's age as I do with the oldness of his hard-line ideology. McCain apparently thinks we won't recognize the Bush doctrine when he spouts it. He apparently believes that we don't realize how much damage the Bush doctrine has done in virtually every area of public life. He thinks we don't get it. But he's the one who doesn't get it. We've been there, we've done that, we've been screwed royally, and we are well aware of what and who has done the screwing. Enough already! No more neocon jobs!