From the comments at AlterNet:
As a nation, we've got to perform a mass mea culpa. We've got to stand up and admit that we made the worse electoral mistake in our history or since the German people foolishly put Adolf Hitler in power in 1933.My response:
The way I always express it is: "Bush is just a symptom of a very sick society." Getting rid of Bush won't cure the disease - but it's a good first step!Fromt he same Alternet comments thread:
As an Aussie, I have watched the USA in enraged bewilderment for the past three years. It's been excruciating, but educational.
We Aussies have our own sad, Bush-loving excuse for a "democratic" government, of course. And that is an often over-looked part of the problem - just look at the damage pro-Bush governments have done around the world. A weakened UN, discarded treaties and protocols... What it amounts to is basically a watered-down version of "democracy" being held increasingly higher as a banner for war and corporate profit.
As a planet, we need to take stock of where the juggernaut of "civilization" is taking us. Together, we can all set a new course. But it's gonna take some work!
I am an amateur performance musician who had performed at least twenty times a year (with my wife on bass) since 1994 in various small venues. But in 2004, my muse finally deserted me and now I can no longer play my guitar without it being a chore. I realized that it is because I don't want to perform for nameless Americans anymore. I don't like them and I don't approve of them. I have nothing to sing to them.I know that feeling. I walk the streets of Australia nowadays knowing that most of the people around me have voted for John Howard again and again and again - even knowing he was a War Criminal (and if they didn't know that, they should have)!
What to do? Walk on! To quote Camus:
We must imagine Sisyphus happy.
