Whose "Derangement Syndrome" is worse

I started this post in July of this year. I'm not sure why I didn't finish it then. But in the cold dawn (or early morning) after the mid-terms, it is time to wrap it up.

I am told that Bush Derangement Syndrome has given way to Obama Derangement Syndrome -- and they they are equally bad -- or equally meaningless. Or, that the Obama Derangement Syndrome is just payback for Bush Derangement Syndrome; which was really payback for Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and it doesn't really matter because "they all do it."

For the record, I think it does matter, I think the various syndromes are not the same, and I think "They all do it" is one of the worst lies perpetuated on the American people in many a year.

One of the worst problems we have in this country is that most voters have abdicated their responsibilities as voters. When less than 20 percent of registered party voters participate in primaries, they surrender their parties to the extremists and wing-nuts. Then they complain about the candidates they are stuck with, and about political polarization, and bemoan the value of participating in the process at all.

Who benefits from such cynicism? The extremists, or the special interests that manipulate the special interests? You decide.

Are the folks that hate Obama just paying the Democrats back for the way the Democrats treated Bush? And didn't the Democrats make Bush's life miserable as payback for the way Republicans treated Clinton? I think not.

A lot of Democrats were upset at how the 2000 election turned out, and a lot of them intended to use the ambiguity of Bush's election to their favor in 2004. But I don't remember many of them expressing a desire that Bush fail in his duties as President; certainly not in the manner that Mitch McConnell or John Boehner have done in Obama's case -- leave aside the "patriots" of Fox news who are paid bomb-throwers.

I also remember that Democrats rallied to President Bush's side after 9/11, and stayed there until the 2002 election when Rove and company used fear and loathing as synonyms for patriotism. (where I left off...)

Since 1968 the Republicans have demonized their opponents as un-American, treasonous, god-less, etcetera, as a staple campaign strategy. The Democrats have challenged Republicans' view of America, and what a "City on the hill" should look like to its followers, but they have not -- as a matter of routine -- challenged their fitness to live amongst us.

It isn't the same and they don't all do it. One party has chosen to divide the country. The other tries, however ineffectually, to make the country work. Or to put it another way, the Democratic Party wants to govern, the Republican party wants to win.

It isn't hard to choose which one is better for the country -- if you happen to love America.