More Thoughts on the Regime Change Column

This week’s column began life over a month ago. The first incarnations I discussed with friends who advised me not to pursue it. I was struck by the percentage of Americans who genuinely believe that the President had something to do with 9/11. Anyone reading this knows that I disagree with President Bush on most things, but I think it’s crazy to think he had anything to do with 9/11. But many believe it. And I was thinking that if you really believed the President would do something like that, then you’d have to want to see him overthrown by any means necessary.

And I thought about all of the changes our country has been through since 9/11. I disagree with many of those changes. So I wrote this column speculating about what could be done about such a regime that would lead us down this sordid path as a nation. Friends warned me not to do the column for fear that the Secret Service would be knocking on my door thinking I was some kind of threat.

Then the girl in Sacramento was questioned by the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security officials for writing “Kill Bush” on her myspace. It didn’t frighten me away from writing about this topic. It made me want to write about it more. And after watching a campaign season featuring some of the sleaziest, silliest, most off topic ads, I had to do it.

I wanted to focus on what I believe the 2006 midterms should be about: a referendum on a President and power that has done real harm to our country. So I reworked the material again and again, ratcheting down the rhetoric until I hit upon using the device of a Tom Clancy novel depicting what our country has gone through.

I’m certainly not calling for the violent overthrow of the government. But I am calling for accountability. And I think we can get there by turning over Congress to the Democrats. The Founding Fathers broke apart our government into three parts so government couldn’t easily run roughshod over citizens. With a Republican Supreme Court, Republican Congress and President, the system is broken.

It’s not because I believe the Democrats have great solutions to the problems of the day. (The problem is hubris by a party that’s been in power too long. We had the same problem here in California when Democrats controlled everything in the state.) We need them there to block Republican solutions. To say ‘enough’s enough.’ To stand up for America. Sometimes being obstructionist is progress.

I believe the Bush regime has changed America in a terrible way. We can start to change that on Election Day.