Eight years ago, I wasn't ashamed as such. Just embarrassed at the shenanigans my country had got itself up to screwing over the rules to put the lesser man in office.
I had thought that the worst President of my lifetime was long behind me, the barbarous and criminal Richard Nixon. I had no idea what the worst President of my lifetime would actually entail.
Then the disaster of September 11th came. I was underwhelmed by the President we'd got's apparent uninterest in leadership.
Then the invasion of Iraq, by which point I was appalled by the incompetence and mendacity.
And the revelations of the abuses of power that the President we'd got did in our name--the secret renditions, the turning over to torturers, and the torturing ourselves, of people whose guilt or innocence we did not know and cared less about; and the grotesque grabs for dictatorial power's clearest bellwether, the warrantless, unreviewable taking of prisoners solely on executive say-so in defiance of the rule of law.
By the election of 2004, in which millions of people knew--or should have known--what I knew about the evil that the President we'd got had done in our name, and switched their vote to him, I was ashamed.
That man and his lickspittles and courtiers had taken my country, the land that I love as deeply as you can love, and made me ashamed of it.
I have been ashamed of my country. Of its rulers; of my countrymen for approving of them.
Tonight, I am not ashamed.
The hard work begins, and I am willing to believe that we have a President capable of leading us, actually leading us, out of the wilderness.
Posted by Greg at November 4, 2008 11:53 PM
Sorry about California Proposition 8, there - I voted against it. In fact, as far as I know, everybody I know who was eligible to do so voted against it.
I read somewhere something very odd, which was that the California Supreme Court might strike it down. Can they do that? It's a CA constitutional amendment, surely it trumps the CA Supreme Court.
Ok, I think I understand what's going on. Here's a link: http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2008/07/19/1
The summary is that Proposition 8 was put forward as a minor change to the constitution; if it were in fact a major change, it would have required either a 2/3 majority of the legislature or a constitutional convention to put it on the ballot, neither of which did it have. There is some argument given in that link, the strength of which I cannot judge, that it's a major change.
That is very interesting.
The CA constitution is kind of fucked up, if that's the process involved.