How Hard Can It Be?

I have been a proud Democrat since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.  I'm embarrassed to say that I actually voted to re-elect Reagan in '84 (after having voted for Pres. Carter in 1980) and for Bush I in '88 (I was still very young!), but GHW Bush's behavior at the end of the Gulf War caused me to get off that bus permanently.  I was horrified at the images of an American President grimacing at the news cameras, vowing that "not one dime" would be spent by America to rebuild Iraq, even as 500 Iraqi children were dying each day as a result of the hospitals being without clean water, one of many results of Iraq's power generation infrastructure having been destroyed.  From that moment forward, I saw every word that came out of the Bush administration for what it was:  heartless, shameless, arrogant, and elitist.  I was thrilled when Clinton & Gore sent him packing in '92, and even more thrilled when they forced through their budget package in '93 that shifted part of the tax burden onto the richest 15% of the population.  Only Democrats seem to be aware that that budget triggered the largest peacetime economic expansion in America's history, and left the country with the first budget surplus in two generations.

During the early 1990's, I also completed a degree in Political Science, which made it undeniable to me that Conservatives of every stripe have consistently opposed every major advancement in human civilization in the last 600 years.  From the abolition of monarchy, freedom of religion, the abolition of slavery, public education, women's suffrage, child labor reform, labor rights, civil rights, workplace safety, environmental protection, and now health care reform and gay rights, they have lied, obstructed, intimidated, and expended inestimable amounts of money to stop the march of humanity to dignity, freedom, equality and prosperity.

It is inconceivable to me that ANYONE could have lived through 8 years of Bush-Cheney and not come to the same conclusions, or find anything remotely amusing about the likes of Anne Coulter, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.  Thank God that the larger undercurrent of American history, operating beyond the reach of Fox News and 10-second sound bites, reached the crest of a 200-year old struggle and placed an African American man into the Presidency!  For better or worse, this was a truly redemptive and glittering moment in this nation's history, and I have every reason to believe that President Obama will deliver most, if not all, of everything he has vowed to do.  He deserves the full support of all Americans, and he most certainly has mine.