Me again...

I've taken a significant hiatus from telling you What to Think, largely due to an overall cooling of the fires of the creative muse. I've been writing other things (none of your business, thank you) which are essentially non-political.

On the great wide swath of Public Affairs, my fires have been cooled somewhat by the apparent scales-falling-from-the-eyes of millions of Americans.

Perhaps the most frustrating newly enlightened Americans are those who voted for Bush in 04, and now regret it. I'm thrilled of course that they now regret supporting these people, but what were they thinking? It's not like there's a whole new side of Bush we've seen since the campaign. His ickiness was on display for all to see. The fact that so many Americans just didn't care enough to pay attention, or thought that Kerry was effete, or really truly believed that Bush was this strong silent type, is plenty troubling. Basically, we're wasting 8 years of our nation's life because some relatively small number of us didn't care enough to pay even the scantest attention. Americans. Sheesh.

So I think the worm has really truly turned. The insupportable foundations of the modern Republican movement are finally beginning to give way. A party can't harbor bigots and those they hate for long, nor practice economic warfare on the vast majority of voters and expect them to never react.

I feel like ranting about the President's cravenness no longer has any point. I am now only interested in things to do moving forward. Like providing health care, economic justice, basic civil rights, genuine concern for the environment, and while we're at it, using the English language in its original, non-Orwellian sense and believing in both science and the separation of church and state.

You know I'm an idea guy. Got a million of 'em. Here's one: there's no question that the first thing a Democrat president would do is call for a new Kyoto accord. (In truth the original had some fairly serious problems, though the right solution was to fix them rather than disparage the entire undertaking). So here's the idea: why wait? Why doesn't the Democratic party organize and sponsor a global conference for government officials from around the world to come together and hammer out a workable solution that we can all sign onto -- and the federal government can sign onto January 21, 2009.

Gotta show the leadership, folks. Can't just play defense.