I was raised by liberal democrats in a liberal area. When you’re raised under a certain ideal, you tend to accept it without question.

Over the past few months I’ve been having an interesting experience which has deepened my understanding of the world, human thought and especially American politics. Bush was elected president when I was too young to be thinking about right or left as metaphors for thought. In 2004, my first election was the presidential election and I endured a baptism of fire into the American political world. To loosely quote Hunter Thompson, I was part of a grand wave of good vibes which we all believed would simply prevail.

Well, we didn’t prevail, and for four more years I sang in the choir of discontent. Pithy anti-bush quotes galore, complete with all manner of closed-mindedness. After Obama was elected, it seemed like everything in the world would change and the “other side” would fade away in our triumph. But, the other side keeps going with their own “no-bama” pithy sayings and ignorance. While I’m obviously still somewhat liberal minded, I now realize the pointlessness of dogging a president relentlessly.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Bush deserved to be questioned seriously for his actions in Iraq amongst other things, but “serious questioning” doesn’t accurately describe the hedonistic revelry with which my liberal compatriots and I insulted the man. I think my point is maybe we need to all just grow up a little.