Bush and Co.

As I rarely write anything that is even vaguely political, I feel I should warn any lurking conservatives that this is one of those rare political moments.

A friend emailed me yesterday quoting a blog post of mine from the Fall/Autumn of 2004. I wrote: "Four more years of a Bush presidency could put America and the world in a disastrous place." The friend asked if I had considered taking up prophesy. Of course that prediction was sort of a no-brainer. But who knew how much worse it could get, eh?

When I hear about Bush's declining approval numbers, it's always: "A new low of 29%," or something in that neighborhood, and nod silently to myself and know exactly who some of those 29 percent are. They are my family. My mother, my father, my father's wife and probably my brother, but he and I don't talk much, and rarely about politics. My sister also voted for Bush, but now sees that she might have done better casting a vote for someone else. (She didn't like John Kerry because she didn't feel like he was "sincere.")

Years ago in NYC, when I was a young activist whose hobby was hanging out with other activists screaming in the streets and making banners that would accompany us when we were screaming in the streets, we protested against this president's father. We thought he was bad. We had no idea. He was bad, but almost seems rational and sane compared to the fool now residing on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Of course my parents think the Clinton years were an absolute nightmare. They rarely mention it (we don't talk politics) but when they do, it's like it was something the country barely got through and is still recovering from. Yes, eight years of peace and prosperity. Let's not go there again.

My parents will probably vote for whatever the Republicans offer up, even if it's Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney. (Although my father voted for Perot when it was Bush v. Clinton.) And my sister will not be voting for Hillary. She doesn't think that any woman should be President. The women in my family are not feminists. I remember my mother saying that years ago, "I a not a feminist," as if she was being accused of something criminal.

As for me, I will vote for Hillary or Obama. I'd say I would vote for Edwards, but I think that it's extremely unlikelihood that he could be the candidate. (And Gore should just continue doing his good work and stay out of politics. Psst...John Edwards, just do what Gore is doing. Do good work and forget about being president.) I said about a year ago that Hillary was not electable, but that was before the Republicans chose Send in the Clowns as their theme music for recruiting presidential candidates.

So I was right about things getting even crazier than they were in late 2004. I will go out on a limb and predict that it will only get worse as long as Bush is in the White House and Congress continues to kowtow to the toothless beast that is the executive branch. I think Dick Cheney is a heartless creep. Condoleeza Rice should be ashamed of herself and it makes me happy to see people like Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzalez and Tony Snow leaving. I hope history shows every one of them to be the criminals that they are.

Woops. No knitting again today. I'll write about my new sweater tomorrow. (It's very exciting.)

Political moment over. You may now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.