"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it".

Talking about how we got here most certainly IS relevant.

Now I should clarify something. I didn't always hate Bush - and in fact I don't think "hate" is the right word. I am, to be accurate, EXTREMELY disappointed in him. The facts speak for themselves. A large part of it has to be the increased arrogance of the GOP as time went on. It's not like Bush could do all this all by himself. The more and more I saw of Bush it became increasingly apparent that the dynamic, popular governor of Texas was becoming more and more a puppet of those he put in place around him - and Dick Cheney seemed to be at the head of the list.

What happened to the GOP from the "Contract With America" days?

It really hit home for me when we were looking at so many problems in the previous election. We were fighting two wars that weren't going the way we wanted, increasing expenditures, coming out of the dot-com bust, health care crisis, etc.. And what was the leading cry from the GOP leadership? *Arguing against gay marriage*!!!

As a good friend of mine said, "Wars, diseases, crisis all around us and what do we get from the White House: Look! Fags!"

Tell me this isn't puppetry. One day, during a press conference, President Bush says he doesn't think that gay marriage is something that should be decided in the Constitution. He was *against* a Constitutional Ammendment, saying it should be up to the states. I took him at face value for that.

TEN DAYS LATER, he came out in favor of ammending the Constitution. Tell me someone didn't get to him. Someone didn't whisper something in his ear or tell him "No, George, we have to do it THIS way".

This is just one example that I happened to pay close attention to because I have a gay aunt. In addition my adoptive mother hid her bisexuality from me for so long, I had to find out from a COUSIN - she was that fearful of what would happen if word got out. (And me having been married, had two daughters and am now engaged again also puts ammunition against the whole ridiculous 'recruiting' argument)

I can't tell you how many times I defended Bush. I had a great respect for the man despite the fact that I didn't agree with him on everything. But bit by bit, year after year, I lost that respect.

But when it comes to correcting the mistakes, I hear Reagan echoing in my head about "stay the course" and "it takes more than four years" - and he was right.