What we remember is how we thought then things would change when we elected Republicans. We remember promises to reduce the size of government and to eliminate waste.
The federal government spent more than $200 million on ice following Hurricane Katrina and had it trucked all over the country because there was no place to store it. That government ice is now indefinitely stored in expensive cold storage at taxpayer expense. It sits unused along with thousands of trailers bought by the federal government.
We remember the goal of doing away with the utterly useless federal Department of Education (now much bigger) and doing away with the National Endowment for the Arts (George W. and Laura Bush just had to make it much bigger).
We remember the embarrassing farm bill passed by Republicans and signed by Bush to hand billions to those who don't need it. We remember the passage of the prescription drug bill that has created a mind-boggling tax burden for future generations.
What we remember is how the loathsome Bill Clinton was behind an increase in the spending of federal money but.... George W. Bush has presided over a such a massive increase in non-defense federal spending, it makes Bill Clinton look like a miser by comparison.
We remember how things were supposed to change when we elected "our side."
Just when will electing "our side" put sanity back into government?
And who'da thunk the Republicans would be the ones to go soft on enforcing our borders and national sovereignty?
We can't just elect 'our side' then sit back and think everything will be peachy. It takes constant pounding on them to do the right thing. I've become a bit more cynical but also a bit more realistic. It's an unending war to prevent the nation from going down the tubes. But, if we don't fight, we don't deserve for it not to. I imagine it's like fighting to take a hill. You don't give up ground you've taken in the hope of taking it again in the future. (At least not without a very good reason and fairly strong certainty of taking it back.)