The following meditation comes to you courtesy of my husband, who prefers to remain safely ensconced in the background. He sent this to me as a token of encouragement, because frankly I've been ready to take to a shack in the hills with a tinfoil hat and a store of provisions. It lifted my spirits to such an extent that I felt obliged to share it with you. Below the jump, a little ray of hope courtesy of Ben in VA:
"We took a vacation to Las Vegas in early July. It was fun, and we enjoyed the gambling, flashing lights, and promiscuous liberal copulation of Nevada's most licentious city. While there, we encountered an Average American Blowhard
TM. But wait! This one was different - he was genial and garrulous, sure, but most (or a lot) of them are. He was also corpulent, with a broad rictus that spread easily over his open and inviting face. He opined that Bush should be prosecuted for sedition, enthusiastically intoning: "We can't get `im for treason, but we can get `im for sedition. Do you know what sedition is?" I answered in the affirmative, mentioning something about the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. He looked confused. We pressed on. He exclaimed, "He's the worst [or maybe he said `one of the worst' - I can't remember] President we've had, and I voted for him twice!" Dear Kossacks, I saw an opportunity. I asked him what changed his mind, to which he responded, "Well, he's incredibly stupid, a real idiot." This didn't exactly answer my question, but I was happy to talk to someone who had voted for Dubya twice and now regrets it. He went on to mention the various failures of the Bush Administration, with which I'm sure you're all familiar, and which I won't bother to recount.
I still wonder what happened between November 2004 and July 2006 that caused him to change his mind, but I think we can take heart in that this man changed his mind, and radically, on the subject of the current President of the United States. So much so, in fact, that he believes that the man he voted for twice should be arrested and charged with everything just shy of treason, and that limit is only necessary because of a lack of evidence. So much so that he is willing to tell this to anyone who will listen (although I suspect he is not the shy, retiring type, and thus that would not be unusual for him). So take heart that the scales fell from one man's eyes, and while he might not be representative of American opinion as a whole, it sure is illustrative, no?"
So there you have it. I hope that makes someone out there besides me feel a little better about things.