For the last six years, I've had no hope for the Democratic Party...

[ShaneGR]

I remember all of the last six years. Starting in mid 2000 and leading up to last week. I happen to keep a diary. Don't write in it every day. Maybe once a week. I find myself thinking back to how I felt over the years a lot lately. I have hit 30 years old. I guess it makes a lot of people start to really take note of where they've been and what they'd done. What happened in my country?

In 2000, a less than par candidate was making an extremely experienced yet indecisive Vice President look like an idiot. And he was doing it by acting like an idiot. America was fat with success. The economy was rolling like a herd of Buffalo on steroids. The budget was balanced. There were just enough Americans, who were not really paying attention. BLOW JOB!!!!! Democrats were defensive. Not sure of what to do or what to say. Care to hear another 10 minute lecture on lockboxes from Al Gore? I didnt have hope. I now believe Gore won that election anyways, but in 2000, I had no hope.

In 2002, a confused and directionless Democratic Party was literally destroyed by an extremely smart, devious, and well financed Republican machine. 9-11. When you have a man, in Georgia, missing limbs from Vietnam, pictured in ads next to Osama Bin Laden with little response. You lose hope. So, in 2002, I had no hope.

In 2004, I saw a nervous candidate facing a wartime president without a clue. Yet he got beat in two out of three debates. That same nervous candidate, another decorated Vietnam veteran, was swiftboated with little or no response. Weakness breeds doubt in the voters mind. Throw in a little Theresa HEINZ Kerry. The truth of Iraq wasn't fully known yet. To the average American at least. Though Kerry went on to get the second most votes ever in a Presidential election, I had no hope.

So here we are in 2006. The lie has fully unfolded. Iraq is the mess the Democrats said it was. Somewhere around 40 US soldiers and at least 1000 Iraqis die every week. The war, mainly confined to An-Bar province, has even spread to Baghad. The Iraqi government and the "trained" Iraqi police are a failure. Torture. Massive suicide bombings. Murder charges. Unbelievable mismanagement of spending. So I have hope it will end this year.

It is 2006 and I still pay nearly twice as much for gas as I did six years ago. Sometimes more than that. But we are close to an election so its only nearly twice instead of two and a half times. You know, like the last two years. The damage has been done. The Republicans milked the cow for their major contributors but they forget to take their mouths off the tit. Too late fellas. So much greed. So I have hope it will end this year.

It is 2006 and Katrina destroyed New Orleans. The President who stood on the rubble of Ground Zero and promised victory over those who attacked our nation is now the man who flew over New Orleans and froze in a plane window. So I hope it will end this year.

It is 2006 and the moral majority, the Republican party, is covering up for sexual predators in Congress. The christian base, so quick to cheerlead, suddenly silenced. So I hope it will end this year.

It is 2006 and the US military is decimated. Spread too thin in Afghanistan and in Iraq, the "volunteer" army is on the edge of disaster. The great American military, with almost limiteless spending, has been overextended and bankrupted. Even Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist concedes that we can't win in Afghanistan unless we let the Taliban participate in the government. The Taliban. The oppressors. The sponsors of Osama Bin Laden. We have to negotiate according to Senator Frist. So I hope it will end this year.

To be clear, my lack of hope wasn't a lack of hope in America. It was my firm belief that the Republicans would keep their hold on power. So I had no hope. But this year, I have hope. I have hope that the Democratic Party will finally retake at least some power in Washington. Can they do any worse? Certainly not. So I have hope.