Nixon seems harmless, because despite his conservative stance, he was not intent on doing harm to America. Would anyone say the same for George Bush?
When I was young, and barely able to vote, I was a district chair for George McGovern's campaign against Nixon. When McGovern lost, I painted a white, carton style bubble on a Nixon campaign poster. On it I wrote, "don't blame me, I voted Democratic." Within a short time, my addition proved prophetic with the Watergate scandal. I enjoyed the irony because nobody died at the Watergate hotel.
Today, I don't enjoy irony. Every day people die because of George Bush. Every day, the Iraq occupation takes the lives of our American sons and daughters -- and Iraqis. It is not enough to say, "don't blame me, I voted Democratic." Each day Bush's legislative agenda takes our civil liberties and threatens our rights -- to 'keep us safe,' NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO export our middle-class jobs, and the "No tree left behind" environmental policies aimed at raking in oil company political contributions rather than caring for the environment, destroy our children's environmental legacy.
Nixon, who I always thought of as evil incarnate, today seems harmless in comparison to Bush. Despite Nixon's host of sins and abuses, he did not seem intent on destroying America. I cannot say the same about George Bush. Rather than "don't blame me I voted Democratic," we should be saying, "Blame me -- I could have done more and did not."
2008 is too late. 2006 is the time to make America the home of the free -- we want our rights back -- and the land of the brave -- stop neocon use of fearmongering for political advantage. Volunteer for whatever campaign is in your area, work, contribute. America as we knew it, will not survive another 2 years without checks and balances.
