It's funny how things work out sometime

I was looking through copies of old letters that I exchanged with my bro in Houston during the 2000 presidential election campaign (back in the old days before I had access to such things as e-mail). One letter was written during a period when Gore had fallen behind Willie Wanker in the opinion polls, and I was reflecting on how the future might look after Wanker was elected. You might say I was becoming resigned to reality.

At the time, the nation was in a state of relative peace and economic prosperity. Gasoline was about a buck-fifty per gallon, which seemed high at the time since it had been 99 cents a gallon the previous year. The Repubs were always pissing and moaning about how Clinton had destroyed the country, so I decided to give them (and W) the benefit of the doubt. Surely they could maintain the status quo as far as peace and prosperity were concerned, maybe even improve things. I decided that the real risks involved in a Wanker presidency were in the realm of social issues, the reversal of Roe vs Wade for example. Since I was long past the point of bringing new babies into the world, that wouldn't be likely to challenge me personally, only philosophically. I figured separation of church and state would be diminished, too. Again, something that would piss me off as a matter of principle but not likely to actually have a radical effect on me personally.

Anyway, that was the rationalization I wrote about in the letter. In the hierarchy of things, W would do his damage in areas where I was philosophically invested in matters of principle. As far as day-to-day life was concerned, nothing was likely to change. Given control of both the executive and legislative branches, the Repubs would have an opportunity to bring all their grand promises to fruition and my life might even get better.

Now it's 2008, another election campaign is underway, we're actively involved in at least one war more than we really need, and the newspaper today is full of articles about the economic collapse that's just around the corner. Considering the whole mess, my optimistic outlook in 2000 makes me look pretty damned dumb.