I know EVERYONE wants to diary today. I am one of those people. Sorry.
Bush and co. did some horrible things this election. They said that Democrats in power would equal terror attacks. They tried to supress votes in Virginia and California. They tried tricking Democrats in Maryland to vote for Steele by blurring his party label (side note: it's kind of sad when a "rising star" in the GOP has to run as a Democrat). Despite the dirty tricks they played (and oh how dirty they were) keep in mind what DIDNT happen.
I admit it. I was skeptical of the integrity of our elections. I was worried the votes wouldn't count. I was worried of a well timed bin Laden tape. I was worried about a terror threat. I was reasonably pessimistic about all of those. But we won.
Bush didn't bomb Iran on October 31st. Bush didn't declare martial law. Bush didn't use the terror code chart for political advantage. They didn't use Diebold to hold onto power (at least it would seem they didn't). All the conspiracies were WRONG.
WE LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY. For the last 4 years I wasn't sure. Remember Hitler? Saddam? The opposition party would NEVER rise under a dictatorship. Is Bush pretty authoritarian? Yes, but he's not a dictator. Keep that in mind.
I already think I might get flamed for this diary, but I'm going to propose something too. Don't be too eager for impeachment. FDR interned Japanese during WW2 for security reasons, even though it was based on invalid logic and poor morality. Abe Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. George Bush set up a secret prison system with possible torture, and started wiretapping on Americans without warrants.
I DO NOT agree with Bush. I think those are stupid policies. Ineffective at best, and destructive to America at worst. But, in a time of war, the president acting with Congress is almost unstoppable. If Bush ABUSED his power and we find liberal bloggers in Guantanamo... if he ABUSED his power and we find a bunch of recordings on file of high ranking Democrats that were illegally wiretapped... then impeach. But if not, just keep in mind that this is a slippery slopes my friends. Revenge is sweet, but do you really want to go down a slippery slope of impeaching presidents for every questionable thing they do? Do you want the Democrats to bring back partisan bickering or do you want a government of consensus?
WE WON. Now let's take the high ground.