Bush hating is hard work- you could help me drop it

Really, do you think that I am actually enjoying the time and place that we inhabit? I have news for conservatives, and a point of discussion for all. The thing is that I am not enjoying it at all. You would think that I would.

I recall that it was lonely when I joined a protest march against the Georg W. Bush Iraq thing about one month before the flares went up. There were a bunch of odd looking college students, and me, my wife, and our two daughters, age what, fourteen and nine. Hey that was a long time ago. I remember feeling so conflicted at the time, because I was very conscious that Saddam was a very bad guy. But I wanted to be there as a matter of principle, because I really believed that it was being sold dishonestly. All the talk of WMDs and ties to terrorists did not convince me. I always saw Saddam as a Stalin rather than a Hitler- more concerned with controlling his people and eradicating all resistance than in building an empire at the price of high personal risk. So okay selling him as a tyrant and genocidist, but not as a threat to us or a buddy to Osama. Yeah I know that is a judgement call and even a few of the guys in the CIA had a tough time deciding. But the point that I am trying to make here is that you would think after the fact that I would feel smug about being right. But no, I do not think I feel even remotely better, because it has not ended. It just goes on and on.

Conservatives, you could help here. Repeat after me: "Yeah, we were wrong about George W. Bush and we are sorry that our votes put him over and saddled the nation with him for eight long years". Try it. It's not that hard to say. Some of you have actually said out loud right here on Gather, statements pretty similar to the first part of that one. Just leave out any caveats or quibbles like at least he is better than Gore would have been or at least he has not cavorted with any interns. Just say yeah, he is a mess and I am sorry for the part I played in that.

What I would like for myself is to be able to let this drop and go beyond George W. Bush. There is a bit over a year in his presidency, the verdict of history is in, he is not going to get impeached,  and it is time to think about other things. But he refuses to let it go and what the heck, so do his base! We are still arguing over how many years to stay in Iraq, still pretending that global warming can be fixed by fueling up on corn likker, still embroiled in partisan showdowns weekly with a steady stream of guys leaving the Executive Branch, but nothing changing in terms of policy.

I guess I would like to escape the legacy of Bush as well as the reality of Bush. I would like to move on to an election wherein both major parties vie with each other to say civil things about the other side, and both eventual nominees vie with each other to see who can be more centrist. I suppose that is really impossible at this point. When you get a guy like George a feeling of vengefulness is unavoidable on one side and a feeling of defensiveness inevitable on the other. But vengefulness or defensiveness really is not going to make anybody happy long term.