Being “bitter” is an interesting thing. I’m a little bitter, I suppose, about how my family, my friends, and my peers have been treated by the policies of George Bush and the Republicans over the past quarter century. That bitterness makes me want to vote for change, and it also makes me realize that real, significant change is unavoidable given the election of either of the two remaining Democratic candidates, and that real, significant change is absolutely impossible given the election of the Republican McCain.

There is another feeling that, until recently, has been much more decisive than “bitterness,” and that is “fear.” Republican administrations, most particularly the Bush administration, have cultivated a political atmosphere dominated by fear. The current bogeyman is “terrorism,” though some Republicans continue to cling to “communism” as a focus for their fear even though it has been pretty much eliminated as a significant political force, at least in this country. Those whose political decisions are based on fear, as opposed to those who are bitter, will likely vote to continue the authoritarian policies of the Bush administration, happily voting to trash their civil liberties in the name of what they moronically perceive as an increase in “security.”

Our only hope as a nation is that there are more of us who are bitter than there are who are fearful.