I fear

I've said many times before that I fear for America in January 2009, when President George W. Bush will leave office. My fear might turn out to be unjustified, since there do appear to be a small handful of reasonable candidates in the running for the American presidency, but I think it is most likely (though again, not a guarantee) that whoever replaces President Bush will be deeply inferior in almost every important way.

Earlier today, in the face of a veto threat from a President who was sensing an immature, unreasonable, xenophobic revolt from within his party, the House of Representatives appropriations committee attached a "kill amendment" by a vote of 62-2 to a crucial national defense bill in a bid to hault the sale of commercial activity at six American ports to a United Arab Emirates owned company.

Democrats, in their bid to seem strong on national security are only likely to take action on symbolic "national security" issues like this one. They have refused to take up an opportunity to stand up and oppose efforts to essentially legitimize the demonization of an entire group of people since the blocking of the deal is based on bigotry and nothing more (the politicians themselves are not bigots, but they hope to play on an unhealthy combination of bigotry, xenophobia and ignorance in order to secure political advantage). People in government, people in power should be wiser and more mature than this, especially since they are privy to much more information than the average voter. Based on my observations of the American Democratic Party, I can safely say that no other political party disgusts me as much as they do. It started with their attempt last year to kill President Bush's attempt at entitlement reform without offering any alternative of their own, but it extends so much further and deeper. Most Republicans have been making me sick lately as well, especially those who are willing to ditch their president in an unwise and futile attempt to help a) their presidential ambitions or b) their electoral chances come November. Instead of showing a united front, Republicans in Washington are looking amateurish and unfit to govern. Now that there is a united Conservative option in Canada and since the Liberals have enjoyed power for so many years, that same immaturity I sense in Washington does not appear to be as evident in Ottawa. Both parties generally seen intent on seeming capable of governing. Neither party looks that way in Washington.

I'm one of the only people I know whose opinion of the American people has lessened while my impression of their President has increased. Every time I see one of those approval rating polls at 40% or less, I shake my head and think about how much worse the Americans will likely have it in 2009.