It is January 20. One year from now, what will you be doing?
Assuming George W. Bush relinquishes his power like presidents in the past, on January 20, 2008, most of the world will be celebrating the end of his administration and all the horrors that came from it.
Some folks want to really savor that moment, and so have already started to plan for it.
While I fear that it will take a long time and great effort to remedy the damage he has inflicted on this country — certainly his judicial appointments and the career technocrats he has installed will be with us for years — I think I am one who will need to have a very dramatic ceremony of purging to mark the transition out of the W nightmare.
Whatever follows will be difficult. Whatever happens in terms of the election, there will be much work to do. I hope we have a new leader who will rise to the occasion, because one way or another, our country will undergo lot of dramatic changes. My hope is that they are progressive changes that we collectively agree to tackle with American determination and fortitude, rather than changes that are forced on us by the consequences of inaction or bad policies.
The next year should be interesting, but, regardless of who assumes the presidency on 1/20/2008, the year after that will probably determine whether this nation will revert to some semblance of a constitutional democracy, or whether George W. Bush (and the real “decider,” Dick Cheney) succeeded in making it, for all intents and purposes, a monarchy.