Not like Cincinnatus

This isn't the America I wanted to wake up in today.

I wanted this to be over. A hard-fought battle won, I wanted to be able to put aside politics and focus on life again - and maybe on healing bruised friendships. Like Cincinnatus, who led Rome during a time of crisis and, when the crisis had passed, immediately returned to his farming.

But the fight isn't over. The only way America will ever pull out of this is if a far larger proportion of the American people develops the critical thinking skills that will allow them to resist being snookered by the likes of Karl Rove, and will allow them to see through the veil of manipulation that led a high proportion of them to arbitrarily assign the characteristic of "Morality" to one of the most deceitful and unethical administrations in modern history. Our job now is to make the people who voted for Bush smarter, or at least less stupid. And to minimize the damage that the near-absolute loss of the system of checks and balances in American government will have on our once-proud nation.

Thank God for Arlen Specter. This is one Republican I can happily say I voted for.