Undoing the damage of our national delusion

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
Charles MacKay, from his 1841 book, EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS

One by one, we took a good look at the man behind that red, white, and blue striped and starry curtain and we found, not our protector, but our undoing.

We recognized that he and his allies had used our trust in him, and our fear of terrorists, against us.

Just when he and his allies thought they had frightened enough of us into giving them absolute power, enough of us finally said, “Enough.”

We, the people of the United States of America, voted the bums out last week.

Democratic candidates, new to elected office, may celebrate Tuesday, November 7, 2006, as they day they won, but really, nobody has won anything yet. We’ve just put the brakes on our losses. If we celebrate too hard, we risk believing the work is over.

It isn’t.

We the people must still reverse what we can of the damage that was done in our name. We have to convince our new legislators that we no longer support the changes we allowed our leaders to make while we were in the thrall of the extraordinary national delusions that our president was competent, and that invading a country, that had nothing to do with those who attacked us, could keep us safe.