Like Staging a Revolution Against Yourself

Watching the Republican convention was a bizarre experience. Every time you turned around, someone was talking about change. But here's the thing: the Republicans have been in power the last eight years! And for six of them, they also had the majority in the legislature! So all the conditions they want to change are ones that they've contributed to creating.

They're the ones who led us into a war (based on false pretenses, poorly planned and therefore putting our soldiers at risk), they're the ones who have refused to raise fuel efficiency standards (Cheney: "conservation is a personal virtue") or invest in alternative energy, they're the ones whose only attempt at health care reform is a Medicare plan that's impossibly complex and leaves millions of senior citizens paying thousands for necessary drugs when they fall into the "donut hole." They're the ones who have brought shame on this country by torturing prisoners. They are the ones who squandered the global goodwill and good name of the United States, alienating all but our closest allies. They are the ones who dismantled our emergency system, leaving not only New Orleans but other other cities at risk.

It is well established in psychology that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

McCain is surely a brave man who has served his country, but he has also toed the party line far more than he has rebelled: he has supported President Bush 95% of the time. Let me repeat that: he supported Bush 95% of the time. That's not a great sign that he's going to be a tremendous force for fixing the problems that the Bush administration has created.

McCain would be four more years of the same. And our nation cannot afford four more years of putting party ahead of competence, power ahead of the people, and ideology ahead of common sense.