To the long time DUers who knew...

[islandgirl808]

how did you all deal with the last 8 years??

i admit, i was completely ignorant about Bush and his cronies (i was in high school during his first term, college his second). now that i'm taking the time to learn about our government, i literally feel sick to my stomach. and to think, we could be in a much deeper hole than we are today :scared: .

[SteppingRazor]

1. I was heavily medicated for most of the last eight years.

:silly:

[JuniperLea]

9. Me too!

Well, self... you know:)


:silly:

[KansDem]

12. So YOU'RE the one!

I spent the last eight years desperately racing from liquor store to liquor store and always finding the cheap-gin shelves empty!

Hey, have a little consideration!

;)

[SteppingRazor]

17. Ha! Couldn't have been me.

1) Gin is the one and only liquor that I will not drink. (Well, there's a few other exceptions -- Cachaca, for example -- but no common ones.)

2) Life's too short to drink cheap booze.

Although, in the present economic climate, I lean more and more toward breaking rule #2.

[shadowknows69]

31. +1

B-) :bounce: :puke: :silly:

[Joanne98]

40. I've been drinking!

[Joanne98]

42. Lot's of wine !!!!!

:hangover:

[SteppingRazor]

56. Er ... yes. Wine. That's what I've been doing.

:smoke:

[Arugula Latte]

69. Me too. My wine intake definitely took a jump after 2000.

[calimary]

43. I should have been heavily medicated for most of the last eight years.

I spent practically the whole time on either a slow burn or a raging fire of anger. And sometimes some pretty desolate moments of sadness and futility snuck in there, too.

It was AWFUL. My kids were growing - they went from grade school to high school in that time and started becoming aware. My daughter voted for the first time last November - for Obama, and eagerly so. My son would have if he were old enough. And I'd tell them this is Chinese-Curse time - this is the worst I can EVER remember a predicament I saw my country in. This is THE WORST. THE WORST so-called pResident, THE ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUSLY WORST VICE pResident, the WORST henchmen and other "president's men" working for them and carrying their water, The Worst IMAGINABLE. And they both got it because I'd tell 'em stuff and try to educate them beyond the whole 15-second soundbite mentality. I always tried to educate them about what was really going on, since the noise machine distorting the truth was always turned up to top volume all the time.

It still distresses me deeply to think that there actually might be a chance that this torture business will NOT be fully investigated AND THE PRINCIPALS PROSECUTED. It's GOT to be! That's the ONLY way to ensure that this nightmare won't happen again - is by levying huge and horrible penalties on those who perpetrated it. Send a lesson and a cautionary tale to the history books for later generations.

[NightWatcher]

2. we banged our heads against a wall, then worked damn hard to get the Dem elected in 08

welcome to DU, if you behave and play nice, you can learn a lot and meet some interesting minds.

[tekisui]

3. That is why I came here.

Yelling to everyone I knew wasn't healthy. I came here to find like minded people, and be involved in proactive involvement.

[beyurslf]

4. You remind youself that after any long, cold winter, a bright new spring comes.

It took longer than we would have ever known but we are there. The important thing now is to harvest that which we have sown over this past decade. :)

[proud patriot]

5. I used yard signs and bumper stickers to express my dismay

To keep my sanity I used DU and just kept gathering information .
The more aware I became the more protests and LTTE I wrote .

I love my Country and Countrymen and had to warn them .

I received death threats and hate mail .

I just kept up , knowing I'd rather die than do nothing .

[Echo In Light]

6. Oh, don't fool yourself; that rabbit hole remains very, very deep indeed

[Missy Vixen]

7. Daily rage

After awhile, burnout sets in. That's where I am right now. The things this country needs seem so apparent to me, but despite the best efforts of millions, the same stuff keeps happening.

I think this is the tip of the iceberg re: information about what was really happening in the Bush administration, and what the public was told. We're going to find things out that will affect the lives of those in subsequent generations.

The bright spot: The first Bush regime wasn't bad enough to leave an indelible memory. This one was. With any luck, the Republican Party won't see the White House for at least another generation.

[blm]

32. That's the rub,,,,Bush1 WAS very memorable but a few powerful Dems whitewashed it and protected it

from being exposed in full, though the investigations were damning and ONGOING when Bush left the WH.

The general public won't learn 90% of the crap that Bush-Cheney have done over the years if they are protected even half as much as Poppy Bush was in the 90s.

[JuniperLea]

8. Welcome to DU, islandgirl808!

We had each other, for one.

It's been a very, very rough time. Yes, we knew a lot of things, but more importantly I think, we also realized that what we did know is only the tip of the iceberg. What we are seeing now is more and more reveal to that iceberg.

We need young people like you to get the word out, and to support our president. That's the only hope we have right now. We have to pull from what our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents taught us about living during the Depression, and the importance of pulling together as families and communities.

I'm glad you are here.

:hug:

[Howardx]

10. i hoped i was wrong

but i wasnt as it turns out.

[JuniperLea]

39. And we were right, way back when...

When we said there would be no comfort in "I told you so."

[Warpy]

11. I knew the outrages of this administration

would continue to haunt both that rotten party and the conservatives in our own party who supported them.

I have waited my whole life for conservatives to be discredited as the non thinking, ignorant, semi savages they always were.

It's finally happened. That it's taken an attack on our soil, 2 losing wars, the near bankruptcy of our government and the beginning of a new Great Depression is no suprise to me.

Conservatives are humanity's greatest problem. They can never be part of any solution to our problems. They can only be dragged along, hissing and clawing all the way.

[Laelth]

13. DU kept us sane.

Though my wife and I were moving to Canada if the Democratic Party didn't reclaim at least one half of Congress in 2006.

Welcome to DU (and a much wider world)!

:dem:

-Laelth

[malaise]

50. Ditto

and I knew hubris would get them in the end. Truth will out!!!

[rucky]

14. Lexapro n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

20. ROTFLMAO!!! and prozac....

[hlthe2b]

15. Just starting to come out of a major 8 year depression...

quite frankly... One of the worst periods of my life. I'm grateful to have had DU, my warm,loving girlie dog, and like-minded friends.

[lpbk2713]

16. DU was my life line. Still is actually.

It kept me from going over the edge. My state (Florida) was a big reason, if not THE reason, why
the corrupt and evil BushCo Regime was able to seize power. And that was rather hard to live with.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. My hair turned grey, I gained 20 pounds, lost my teeth and my face got all wrinkled!!!!

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

BEFORE:


AFTER:

[seemslikeadream]

22. me too

:rofl:

[drm604]

19. Welcome!

I posted here, went to meetups, and volunteered for and donated to political campaigns. I educated myself so that I could speak out when I met people who were victims of misinformation.

You and your young friends need to get involved and stay involved. It needs to be a lifetime of involvement. We can never again let our guard down. Even if things seem to be going in the right direction, we have to continue to work and speak out.

[seemslikeadream]

21. divorce

[hootinholler]

60. Me Too n/t

[proud patriot]

64. close to it

but still holding on

[VWolf]

23. Lots and lots of Sams Adams n/t

[conscious evolution]

24. hard drugs

and a lot of pot.
Of course,DU played a little part in keeping what sanity I have left.

[spartan61]

25. I became addicted to DU during bush's first term.

I needed to know I wasn't alone in my thoughts and fears of his administration. I learned so much from the other DUers and felt comfort knowing there were thousands of others out there who thought and felt as I did. I'm still addicted to DU and check in several times a day, including my first stop in the morning on the computer and the last stop of the day. Thank you to all you wonderful DUers for being my lifeline. Also, hello to all of you DUers I was able to meet in person when we all attended the anti-war protest in Kennebunkport, Maine. What a great day that was!

[SalviaBlue]

26. I was in a rage most of the time.

I think I almost divorced my husband about 1,000 times because he couldn't/wouldn't see it. He KNOWS now, like alot of people and he's pretty outraged too. Better late than never.

I feel like the sun is coming up after a very long cold stormy night.

[Elwood P Dowd]

27. Beer!

:beer:

[Lerkfish]

28. It was beyond an outrage, it was criminal outrage fatique, I can't come up with

a proper word. I've been making torture my top priority since 2001. At various message boards I've been treated like a conspiracy nut, an insane person, a traitor, you name it.

its been hell, but I always knew I was right.

The hardest part was HERE, when I was told torture was something to overlook to get a democrat elected.
(same thing they've done here to the GLBT community.)

note I'm not referring to everyone at DU, just some "bad apples".

[H2O Man]

I tried to focus

energy on working towards positive change. Voter registration and voter education. Grass roots activism.

[JohnnyLib2]

29. My motto is "outlive the bastards."

Came late to DU, but was already determined to follow that motto.

[robdogbucky]

30. I can't speak for others

but I am older and had experienced this whole process of back and forth struggle, left vs right, for the heart and soul of America for most of my life.

From early inculcation of notions of class differences based on birth and wealth on up to the power structure and methods of manipulation and motivation administered by Madison Ave., then by politicians and other cult leaders, all sensitized me to what was happening. By the time of the civil rights movement, the womens' movement, the sexual revolution and the Vietnam War, it was all pretty much out in the open, a full-scale cultural and political war for the country's future. This involves a lot of mind games at all levels of society. Both sides have their resources in this regard. The right has and always have had the economic advantage in this struggle.

I think the issue of now an entire generation since Reagan's first term when the right went on the offensive and really began to transform our political democracy into something else (our economy never was democratic, but at least our political processes exhibited some form of pluralism of ideas), is really a serious one. That generation has been full-tilt indoctrinated into what the now consolidated mass media programs them into believing and thinking and feeling and consuming. Kids like yourself want to know what has gone down, and maybe begin to realize that there is something happening here that is not exactly clear. In a nutshell, the power elite that have had control of most of the resources and wealth and military in this country decided to wage all-out war on anything resembling an alternative to their worldview.

I think it was the result of their failure to successfully conclude the Vetnam adventure, the exposure of what Watergate meant in terms of how far one side was willing to go, the changes wrought culturally on this nation by the various social changes of the sixties, etc., made the right feel that they could maybe lose all control. The frequent bouts of recession and inflation did not help their cause and theories of economic lassaiz-faire. I think this frightened them to no end.

The opportunities presented themselves when it looked like we could outlast the Communist Bloc in the cold war and gain the upper hand worldwide, for good. PACs were invented, Fairness Doctrine was set aside, full-scale war was begun against organized labor, and media consolidation and revival of the military industrial commplex was begun full-steam ahead. The full-on establishment of corporate hegemony had been implemented.

In a nutshell and off the top of my head, that is part of what happened, and having witnessed lots of it actually going down made it easy to recall what had been before. The possibilities of re-igniting our democracy into the full potential it had shown before this retrenchment of the right began always gave hope we could expose what had happened and return things to their proper course of human evolution. You know, peace, prosperity, knowledge growth, cultivation of friendly relations to the earth, etc.

Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[Laelth]

54. Nicely said. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[opihimoimoi]

33. Some of them KNEW but was prevented from saying shit because of

of the National Security Acts and laws...

Whwn reading about Bullies and how they scam their ways...one of the ploys they use is the appearance of compromise with the "THEY DID IT TOO>>> they6 share blame to diffuse...."Its not only US...ITS THEM too....

[earth mom]

34. We're continuing to deal with * & Co's crap because those bastards are still free as birds.

Until the do nothing Congress and the picture perfect Obama administration actually DO something to punish the * & Co criminals we are all still in great danger.

:nuke:

[sinkingfeeling]

35. Spent years signing petitions, writing letters, and sticking pins in a Bush voodoo doll.

[islandgirl808]

36. thanks everyone

it's nice not to feel so alone. and you are right, if they aren't held accountable, who knows how bad the NEXT one will be.

hmm...shall i ready my passport to canada, sweden, or switzerland??? lol

[KamaAina]

37. Aloha and E Komo Mai to DU!

:hi:

(that last part is "Welcome", lit. "come in", for those of you playing along at home)

[islandgirl808]

38. hey!

how are things back in hawaii?? aww i miss home...it'll be a year in July since i left

:hi:

[KamaAina]

48. And now you join DU.

There are but a handful of us posting out here, which explains why I was able to grab the name "KamaAina" shortly after I arrived; I delurked right after Nineleveninelevenineleven. There are no longer even enough of us to bother with meetups. :(

[butterfly77]

41. I talked and talked and talked ...

to friends,family and strangers. I protested,I emailed,drank sometimes among other things..I logged on to DU just about everyday and other sites and compared my notes...

[immoderate]

44. Since the Vietnam War for many of us...

You get used to being the outsider who eventually is proved right. :)

--imm

[leftofthedial]

45. we leaned heavily on one another

and many of us suffered depression, anxiety, anger...

[Hepburn]

46. How did I deal with Bush's 8 years?

Not well...not well at all.

[lunatica]

47. That knot you feel in your stomach? Imagine 8 years of it

There were some major head exploding raging rants flying around. Believe me no one who was aware was able to be calm. There was a lot of activism going on, lots of emails to editors, to Congresspeople, to Bush. There was major despair.

[YvonneCa]

49. Worked to elect Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008. Read...

..."Assault on Reason", by former VP Al Gore (which I highly recommend, BTW) and learned the true meaning of the word 'citizen'.


Oh...and I gained 20 pounds that seem to be melting away since January 20th. :7

Welcome to DU.

[KharmaTrain]

51. Look Back On The Blogs...

If you're curious where many of us where...go into the archives at Daily Kos or Talking Points Memo or Americablog...dig back as far as you can and you'll see how many were very aware of what was happening but how much of a stonewall was being put up to keep a lot of this information from coming forward.

[mwb970]

52. It was rough. DU and other sites helped a *lot*.

I had a blog called "Bush Lies" that gave me an outlet until I gave up on it in 2005 (remnant at http://bush-lies.blogspot.com/).

[flyarm]

53. we worked hard to educate those who did not know..

against all odds and many who tried their damnest to shut us up.

And many of us still fight hard to educate.

We called and wrote and went to DC in person on our own dimes to try to stop this shit and the lies ofthe war, the lies 9/11, the inhumane treatment, the renditions, all the fucking corruption that surrounded all of us and the voting machine corruption..

We went up against family members, many of us lost many lifelong friends..we were laughed at and jeered at ..eyes rolled when we walked into a room..but we kept fighting for truth..with very high prices for some..

I know i became an elected delegate in 2004..I wrote a bi-weekly newspaper column..and heaven knows i am not a writer..but someone had to tell what we all knew..some of us were threatened..
I hung a sign on my home..king sized sheet with "BUSH is a Liar and Murderer" with red paint dripping like blood that was in newspapers across the country..it even ran in a San Deigo paper..i wanted people to talk..and talk they did!! And truth seeped out because people were willing to risk all for truth.

We ran internet groups..and got the truth out whatever way we could..many very creatively..

We ran for offices in our own communities, we put our money where our mouths were, we walked the pavements , we protested..we fought like hell..to only now again be told by people.. in our own party to shut up..

it is all the same shit just a different day!

[CTyankee]

55. I felt cursed, a Cassandra doomed to forever agitate against the Bush insanity.

I reached the point where I said openly "I HATE being right all the time!" it was no comfort to me to be proved right, after I had to put up with righties and other subhumans constantly mocking me and my views.

I think we all got paranoid. Certainly, the way we liberal Dems acted in the closing weeks of the 08 election showed we were somewhat unbalanced: every day we would start our day with looking at the latest polls. If Obama was up we wept with joy, if he was down we were thrown into a well of despair. One friend of mine broke down in tears at the reception that Sarah Palin was getting right after the Republican convention (I myself got up at 3 in the morning to check what the reactions were coming in).

During the primaries, we were absolute beastly to each other here at DU. If we had had a guillotine there might have been many a DU head rolling. That was pretty bad.

After the election, there was more internal brawling over Obama's cabinet picks and generally what he was doing or not doing. I personally think it was our collective leftover PTSD: we had been in an abusive relationship with the Bush administration for 8 years. We had been beaten and told we were no good, we were losers, we were mocked and tortured. No wonder we came out of it needing to heal. Things are much better now, better than I would have dreamed.

Sorry to go on so much. Thanks for listening...

[damntexdem]

57. Yaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa gggggggggggggghhhhh!!!!!!

Huh? Oh, yeah -- it wasn't easy. Just had to take it a day at a time, even when I couldn't take it.
DU helped.

I was outraged by the stolen election, then by the domestic incompetence and international recklessness. I demonstrated in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, both before and after that crime was initiated. I campaigned for Dean in 2004, supported Kerry in the General Election. I was depressed when the election was stolen again.

Finally, in 2005, things began to pop. On August 6, I was in the first group of 100 or so who marched out in a peace demonstration along a country road to just outside Dubya's pig farm. My wife and I left after the march thinking that it was just one more demo, seen by few. We were wrong. Dubya's refusal to speak to Cindy Sheehan, a mother who had lost a son in Iraq, caught the notice of the nation. When we went back the next weekend, there were hundreds at Camp Casey I. When we returned two weeks later, there were thousands at Camp Casey II. Dubya's war crimes were just starting to catch up with him. Then, as we drove home, we encountered rain -- advance clouds from a storm in the Gulf: Hurricane Katrina. Dubya's incompetence at domestic governance, and complete obliviousness to people's needs, were just starting to catch up with him. Dubya never recovered. Then in November 2006, the Bushista mess turned into a GOP slide in the elections, and the loss of the Senate majority. After that, it was organizing for 2008 -- and we all know how that turned out.

I will say that I had the personal legacy of having been active in opposing the Viet Nam War in the 1960s and 1970s and of other political work, including support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s (I was too young be involved in the early years of that movement in the 50s). That did prepare me somewhat to survive the 00s and the Bushistas.

[BelgianMadCow]

58. I felt MikeMalloyish pretty often

Hearing someone as outraged as I was and am, and reading / posting on DU kind of kept me sane. To the extent that is possible ;-)

Many dire predictions have not come to pass - I'm less gullible about those.
Many dots have been connected here that changed my worldview forever. Often, DU is (way) ahead of the curve. Often, off track :P

[plcdude]

59. Ranting

to my wife and father-in-law on a regular basis. I was astounded when we elected Ronald Reagan twice but this past 8 years have been a total nightmare which we are now being forced to confront and rectify. Good luck to us and I hope we can grow back to becoming true Americans again.

[nadinbrzezinski]

Day to day, with a good dose of ghoulish humor

and the knowledge that the worst of horrors do come to an end

Also with the knowledge that it could have much... much worst

You really don't want to go into my worst nightmares...

[nadinbrzezinski]

61. Day to day, with a good dose of ghoulish humor

and the knowledge that the worst of horrors do come to an end

Also with the knowledge that it could have much... much worst

You really don't want to go into my worst nightmares...

[librechik]

62. heh

:smoke:

[Uzybone]

63. One day at a time

with varying levels on intensity regarding the political process. Kerrys loss really bummed me out because by then most of us (America in general) we knew what kind of man Bush was by then yet he still got enough votes to steal another election. I pretty much stopped caring about politics after that and didn't tune back in until the Dem primaries began.

[The Wizard]

65. For eight years the grandson

of a Nazi sympathizer was at the helm, or so it seemed.

[Avalux]

66. This placed helped A LOT. Don't know what I would have done without it.

There were times over the past 8 years that I didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel; never thought Dems would be able to beat the Pukes and regain power. Being able to come here was a great confort.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Mike 03]

67. Hibernation of sorts, plus medication

Celexa
Welbutrin
Obsessive exercise regimen
Adopting dogs and cats
Focusing on anything other than the White House

[opihimoimoi]

68. Of course it was Dismaying, distraughtful, and disturbing to endure but in 2006 and 2008 we had

redemption and in these past few months...we were laughing our guts out....and still is....

Its been like..."THERE IS A GOD AFTER ALL"

BUT YEAH, WE SUFFERED....I did...ya noes if ya got Pub friends who tease you on the golf course..."Bush Won...get OVER IT...."

2X.....I wanted to die when Kerry Lost...got cheated.....swift boated....I was distraught....

[cpompilo]

70. I yelled at the T.V. alot

My husband & I watched every move BushCo made. After the 2004 election was stolen electronically, my husband & stepson set up the website 51 Capital March and promoted protests across the country for the 12-12-05 Election Certifications taking place in all our 51 capitals. We protested in Austin on that day and my husband got himself escorted off the floor of the State House hand delivering a petition, signed by several hundred people, protesting the certification, to our representative.

We also created and held the Election Assessment Hearing in Houston at the end of June 2005. At that hearing we heard testimony from a slew of people investigating the electronic fraud that put BushCo in the White House for a 2nd term. A representative of James Baker (of the Baker/Carter Commission) showed up at the hearing and got an earful!

I still have 2 bumper stickers on my car that my husband designed and which read "The 2004 election was STOLEN" and "Live Free or Diebold - Choose". Perhaps I can take them off my car now...

After President Obama was elected I was surprised at myself for crying - tears of relief after 8 years of watching the death of democracy. We did what we could to fight back.

[Fleshdancer]

71. DU DU DU DU DU DU DU

My disgust over the previous administration is what lead me to discover this place. Without this forum to vent and find others who were just as angry is what kept me from going insane.

[islandgirl808]

72. thanks so much for sharing

i love learning about everyone's history!

:grouphug:

[annabanana]

73. We took comfort in company. We found each other.

It was a relief you just can't imagine.. like cool clear water to a creature in the desert..

[DemoTex]

74. I knew when Bu$h was my state's governor.

I tried to tell y'all!

[Stephanie]

75. I marched and yelled and marched and yelled and posted here at all hours

And held my breath until Obama finished saying the oath. After two stolen elections and outrage fatigue I never thought I'd see the day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

76. i just got angrier and angrier

But I also got active. I got up off my ass and started speaking out. I got active in my local Democratic party and in DFA. I started taking part in demonstrations against the war and I went down to Crawford, TX to support Cindy Sheehan.

So I feel like I am a better person now than I was in 2000.

But the country would have been better off without Bush. That's for sure. I will always be angry about the damage he did. And I doubt I will see it all repaired in my lifetime.