The good thing about the past 6 years...

I'm in a good mood. Feeling charitable.

So rather than gloat about the political sea change going on in our country today, I'm going to point out what has been good about the past 6 years, politically speaking.

What's been good about the past six years is that we've had an opportunity to see and hopefully remember what happens when you let Republicans rule as a majority for six years.

This is what you get:

• Stunning abuses of power.
• Shameless warmongering, carried out with astonishing ineptitude
• Fear based politics
• Religious fascism and pandering applied to social issues, ignoring popular concerns
• Financial irresponsibility on a macro scale
• Insane pork barrell spending
• Massive deficits
• Increasing dependence on fossil fuel, inflamed by government policy favoring fossil fuel companies
• Failed foreign policy resulting in increased nuclear proliferation worldwide, increased anti-American sentiment worldwide, increased terrorist recruiting worldwide, increased security risk to the USA
• Unprecedented political divisiveness
• Reduction in Constitutional rights for individuals
• Gay bashing
• Dwindling middle class
• Increased disparity between the rich and the poor
• 800,000 children with no health insurance
• Drug benefit programs designed to uphold the profits of drug companies at the expense of the elderly
• Inability to systemically deal with illegal immigration issues
• More children left behind
• Jobs exported overseas
• Congressional pay increases/minimum wage decreases
• Back room secret policy making
• Unchecked global warming, denial that problem even exists, government suppression of scientific study results
• Paid political propagandists posing as unbiased news reporters
• Torture as a policy, revocation of Geneva convention, secret prisons

And in case we still need to be reminded why Democrats picked up 27 seats in the House, at least 4 seats in the Senate and ousted 6 Republican governors yesterday, here are a few proper names to remember:

Mark Foley, Tom Delay, Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, Enron, Duke Cunningham, Tyco, Osama bin Laden, Bob Ney, Hurricane Katrina, Terry Schiavo...I'll stop there. I said I was feeling charitable.

So now we begin the process of trying to dig out from this mess.

Good luck to us all.