It's time now to be very, very worried about the current leadership of the Republican party. After the election debacle of 2000, we shouldn't be surprised at how they've treated our allies (and domestic dissenters) with regard to Iraq. If you disagree with them, you will be characterized as either an idiot or a villain.

Consider the election debacle. Any sensible person could see that it simply wasn't clear what should be done after the election of 2000. The Democratic injunction to "count every vote" was eminently reasonable, and probably pointed to the most sensible course of action, though Republicans had an interesting and important argument that the votes had (in some sense) already been counted. At any rate, the one thing that was absolutely clear was that it simply wasn't obvious what should be done. However, the Republican leadership immediately printed up their asinine "Sore Loserman" signs and distributed them to the crowds of protestors they manufactured. They immediately began to push the line that their suggested course of action was the only reasonable one, and that anyone who disagreed was either idiotic or unpatriotic (or otherwise unscrupulous). Although Gore and the Democrats didn't act perfectly, their actions were far more honest and patriotic than those of the Republicans. Gore made it clear that the campaign had to stop immediately, and that we had to come together as Americans and arrive at a fair method for determining the outcome of the election. He urged his followers not to protest.

In short, the Democratic argument was "count every vote"; the Republican "argument" was "GIVE US THE PRESIDENCY. NOW."

Surely you know that the Republicans had kept back several million dollars because they thought that they were going to win the popular vote and lose in the Electoral College. They planned to foment a kind of popular uprising against the constitution. Everyone should meditate on that fact at some length.

We learned something very important about the Republican leadership. They are extraordinarily unscrupulous, authoritarian, and anti-democratic. They simply cannot be trusted with the reigns of government, and, though that was not obvious during the election, it became obvious during the controversy over the election.

I worked for Gore before the election, but every night that I drove down to Democratic headquarters I had an agonizing debate with myself about whether I was doing the right thing. The relentless Republican propaganda about Gore had begun to get to me, and I was seriously questioning my decision to work for his campaign. But I decided that it was clear enough that Gore was the lesser of the two evils, and I continued to work for him, and voted for him.

Within days of the election, it became clear to me that I had made the right decision. In fact, when the Republican leadership began to show their true colors, I was astonished that I had ever thought that it was a close call. The Republicans released their attack dogs (James Baker, Joe Scarborough (sp?), etc.), and I saw a kind of hatred and viciousness in them and their comments that I had never seen in American politics before (not even during their bizarre anti-Clinton campaign). They unleashed a scorched earth policy, rejecting the most plausible way of counting votes (the Delahunt (or "intent of the voter") standard), the very standard that George Bush himself had signed into law in Texas. They repeated over and over again that any human attempt to count the votes would be "subjective" (which is not true), and even threatened to ignore the votes entirely by getting the Florida legislature to send it's own slate of electors.

I was simply astonished at how quickly the Republican leadership became willing to ignore democracy and destroy fundamental pillars of our government in order to take power. I went from viewing them as the loyal opposition to viewing them as very, very dangerous men.

And Gore's actions made it clear that he was a far better man than I'd ever realized. His concession speech was a beacon of hope about American politics during a very dark time.

This is not to say that I think all Republicans are like the current leadership. That would be absurd. Really...some of my best friends are Republicans... Hell, I'm sympathetic with the Republicans about a lot of issues, and considered myself a Republican up until Ronald Reagan drove me to the Democrats (which was, admittedly, when I was 16...but still...). But the Republican leadership has gone bad. It's easy for unscrupulous men to take control of a party, and that's what's happened now.

I hope beyond hope that rank-and-file Republicans will come to their senses and throw these bums out. If not, there's still a good chance that they'll end up Gingriching themselves again. Tom DeLay is far, far worse than Newt ever was, and I expect that he'll eventually go to far. (Though one would have thought that the Texas redistricting-Homeland Security fiasco would have done him in...)

Anyway, the original point was:
How can anyone possibly be surprised at the way they've acted toward our allies, given how they are willing to act toward other Americans? These are unscrupulous men who seem to be incapable of entertaining the possibility that the might be wrong about anything.

Alright. That's it. I can't even write about this any more.

Oh...and...er...VOTE FOR WESLEY CLARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!