for consistency if nothing else. Clearly my point was to pin you down for the sins of the Democrats that led to the most recent Republican takeover. You clearly know that the interment of the Japanese had absolutely nothing to do with that and that the tactic would have probably not only occurred had Bush and Cheney been in charge then but the Japanese would've been waterboarded in addition to being imprisoned.

No Tom, we're not talking about WWII and Vietnam. The country was pretty much united in the idiocy of those circumstances regardless of party. We're talking about the abuses of the Democrats just prior to the MOST RECENT Republican takeover. You tell me the atrocious things that people like Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, and the others in power at the time did that had our country on the brink of collapse. Many of us in the center or on the left had great disgust with the actions of Democratic leaders during that time but I can guarantee you that we never doubted the future of our republic like these recent times.

Jimmy Carter's primary sin was piss-poor timing in being in office when the economy swung down compounded with inheriting a mess in Iran that deepened the hit. He also assumed that the nation would rally across political lines to tackle the underlying issues. It was political naivety at its finest. His political opponents tore him apart. Yet, despite his deep fundamentalist Christian beliefs he fought hard to ensure the separation of church and state. He also didn't lie to us and entangle us in needless foreign wars. Hindsight shows he was far ahead of all others in Washington on his visions towards energy independence and conservation. Grade - about a C+ or B-.

Bill Clinton I really didn't like when he was in office. I could see his slickness and never truly trusted his underlying intentions. Yet, looking back to his years in office, clearly the stature and strength of the United States grew in many ways certainly compared to the mess of the last decade. Having Clinton as a President was similar to having a neighbor you really didn't like but one that kept his front yard in good shape and didn't shoot your dog. Grade - about a C+ or B-.

Congress has been crap throughout most of my life no matter who had the majority but never do I remember a time when they were so lockstep with the administration as during the majority of the Bush reign even though Constitutional atrocities were being committed left and right. Yeah there were Democrats that went along as well. I think they should have taken a stand but your side really rallied the nation into an environment of fear and patriotic excess. I'm sure many of the capitulators saw dissenting votes as political suicide during the wave of aggressive nationalism boiling around them. Every politician that did stand up and oppose things like the war and the Patriot Act including a few from your own party were subjected to damning attacks on their patriotism and morals. A few lost office.

Both of the eras I've lived through where our country was so deeply divided along party lines were during Republican control. The first I was barely aware of because of age - the McCarthy era. The second is obviously the Bush fiasco. No other times came close to those bitter rifts. No amount of your charts and graphs can erase that fact. We escaped the complete slide into chaos by the skin of our teeth, because a very tiny percentage of American voters came alive and pushed your party out. That still leaves a huge number of folks that still were vastly uninformed and up for grabs by the next manipulative fascist selling snake oil.

By the way, I'm not including the Vietnam chaos in that list of top times because something very different happened then. The revolt came largely from within the controlling party. Even though Democratic Presidents were in charge during much of the buildup of the war, it was also Democrats that led the majority of the protests, and eventually defunded the operations. How refreshing it would have been had the Republicans stood up to an obviously failing and incompetent Bush/Cheney team and forced them to be responsible or enabled investigations and prosecutions. Instead they feasted on the power and looked for total control. Classless.

Art