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[paxamicus AT earthlink.net]

"The monster years

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a  
mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the  
monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political  
life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom  
DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because  
schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl  
Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and  
understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11  
as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were  
reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were,  
in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American  
politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been  
banished to the wilderness."


From this morning's NYT. I'm not going to bother to link it.