Well, Americans like the Bush vision and values. He is elected by a majority of the people and electors. And he has a Senate and House of Representatives that are able to carry through his programs.

It is certainly not my vision of America. But we shall see how events proceed. We have a new reality. Americans have decided to go the same route every super-powerful country in the history of the world went - in pursuit of empire. The Kerry vision was to back away from empire and work with other nations and the UN. That is now behind us. We have stepped on the path to world dominance. I think it is the path to perdition.

In this country we can expect environmental protections to drop. Forests will be "saved" from forest fires by cutting down the best trees. Our civil liberties will be erased one by one - in the names of security and order. Freedoms of speech and press will be restricted. Patriotism will become the watchword. Ahh, you Bush supporters, it will be interesting to have a discussion with you in two years.

I would encourage supporters of Bush to write down their own thoughts on why they are happy. What they think will develop. And post them. I would encourage my right-wing friends to start a blog and post their visions. Let's see how these read two years from now. It is time NwCitizen had a couple other local Bellingham blogs to exchange views and links with.

This is one of the oldest blogs in the US, going steady and involved in local issues since 1996 - before they coined the name blog. I saw back then that the Internet was going to be an efficient and viable way to inform others of political issues. I thought then that soon others would pop up. But no, this is still the only local political blog. If anyone - left or right - wants to have a beer and talk about how to start and run a blog, just email me. We need more local blogs.