I certainly agree, with the exception that I believe that there are so many of us who are furious, dismayed and disgusted, that we will still be hammering about it to our great-grandchildren. I pray that more than one generation will know with clarity, what a danger we put ourselves into, by selecting presidents whose own background shows their tendency to surround themselves with those who do not nay-say him.

And in one sense, I think Bush has made headway. He has proved to those of us who are Centrists or Moderates, that we have too long chosen to let the righteous and the indignant hammer it out. We have too long taken the road of believing that sooner or later, everything will be all right, and not bothering to speak (or even think too hard) because politics so often turns into mayhem, with two extreme sides screaming (and the moderates backing away).

I consider this presidency to be an extreme, and it shames me as a Centrist to admit culpability. We moderates have been too bored and wistful. We slept through the first election, frankly believing that our own past proved that NO president had time or enough clout to destroy our country and our Constitution. We'd seen plenty of bad presidents. "Our country has Checks and Balances. One bad president is just one president who'll soon be gone."

What lazy idiots we were. And when we raised our voice in the second election, we were far too late, for the term "moderate" was unfamiliar. Anyone who spoke against Bush was considered a bleeding heart liberal. We had no basis by which to prove our political savvy.

I yearn for a third party, cut right out of the middle. Or make the conservatives who haven't a conservative thought in their head stop calling themselves Republicans, and the liberals who want personal rights beyond what makes any sense for the good of ANYone, stop calling themselves Democrats.

These days, I object strenuously to being considered any of those terms. They all have such negative connotations. And I'm embarrassed to call myself a Moderate, because being moderate = not troubling yourself to get involved.