By Sean Riley

Disappointed does not begin to explain how I have felt this past week. I don’t think our country has been this divided on principles since the start of the Civil War. And call me stupid, but I can’t think of one accomplishment George “Dubya” Bush has achieved as president. Nothing. The Southerners who predominantly voted for Bush would probably just write me off as one of ‘dem liberals up in Massachusetts, except for the fact that I’m not from New England and I’m not a registered Democrat, either.

There has been no rhyme or reason as to what Bush has done as president except that whatever the religious right or big donors have sought, he has delivered. Want to make gay marriage illegal? Not to worry, he’s working on it. Want the Ten Commandments in front of your courthouse? It won’t be long before he finds a way to get around the Constitution on that one, too. Want to drop environmental standards? Absolutely – I mean the theory of global warming was just invented by the same nuts that said the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth.

How much longer can we honestly expect to remain the most advanced country in the world when half of the “red states” want schools to teach their children the book of Genesis instead of the theories of evolution? I want to be clear that I do not mean to mock faith; there are many things it does to help people. I just don’t like it when religion dictates policy, the one thing our founders tried to ensure it would not do. And it infuriates me that the Christian Coalition supports Bush because of his stance on gay marriage and abortion, yet turns a blind eye to the record number of criminals he executed while governor of Texas. Apparently life is a gift that should never be taken for granted – unless you happen to be a black man on death row.

I think we can all agree in hindsight that John Kerry wasn’t the right man to oust Bush. First of all, Democrats should have learned by now not to nominate people from New England, because they’re automatically perceived by much of the country to be crazy liberals. (We’ll ignore for the moment that it was New Englanders who founded this country.)

Secondly, Bush’s team, not to be confused with Bush himself, brilliantly manipulated the media by always keeping the spotlight on Kerry. While questioning why Kerry had received Purple Hearts for his courageous service in Vietnam, they distracted the American public from Bush’s failure to even show up for part time National Guard duty! And when it was released that the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq were 10 times greater after Bush infamously declared victory in front of that flashy “Mission Accomplished” banner, they deftly changed the subject to gay marriage. It was ridiculous … but it worked.