By Thom Riddle

Now that the majority of the American public, according to recent polls, has finally opened its sleepy eyes to the reality of the Bush administration, everyone and his brother is jumping on the "Bush is a problem" bandwagon.

The republicans' siding with Bush in his pre-9/11 plans and post-9/11 actions against Iraq is politically understandable. Our elected republican representatives' going along with the outrageous, "feed the rich" tax breaks is nearly as understandable, unless you factor in the balanced budget busting results. The Christian fundamentalists', both republican and democrat, agreeing with the Bush reactionary social and legal agendas is again, at least a plausible outcome of Bush's prideful ignorance regarding science and incessant preaching.

What is NOT understandable, at least to me, is the sheep like behavior of our elected democrat representatives before the recent poll results favored jumping on the "Bush is Bad" bandwagon. Unless of course, you factor in the fact that most politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, are wimps and boot lickers. Only a very few elected democrats had the courage and integrity to stand on their good and solid moral grounds for opposing most of the Bush administration's reactionary policies and initiatives. At the time of this writing, only one Senator has actually admitted publicly that his support of the Iraq War was wrong. Of course, even this came about AFTER the polls showed that the American public was awakening from its deep stupor.

The American press (at least the predominant outlets) demonstrated the same wimpy and boot-licking character faults as did many of our elected "liberal" representatives, only recently finding their "courage" AFTER the polls reflected the inevitable awakening of the sleeping public.

These facts should embarrass all Americans who value the the principles on which our once great nation was built. It is not too late to recover from this administration's corruption of the true American way, but it will take dramatic change and REAL principled leadership in both political parties and the "bought and paid for" invertebrate media outlets.

NOW is the time to recognize those who demonstrated the courage to resist the Bush administration's policies BEFORE the polls showed his popularity circling the drain.

NOW is the time to hold responsible for their decisions, those who uncritically went along with the program for personal profit or political expediency.

NOW is the time to find electable candidates with enough integrity to withstand the political winds which always have and will continue to shift.

NOW is the time to admonish those who did not stand against the absurdities of this administration when they could have, by replacing them with those who will at the next election opportunity.

Thom Riddle

Buffalo, NY