Hope is a beautiful thing. But disappointed hope is the worst thing in the world, and the Republicans have gravely disappointed you. It turns out that they are not what they promised; in the end, they are just another group of politicians, no better than any other and in fact worse than most. The law and order party cannot prevent crime; the decency party turns out to have child molesters within its ranks; the church party turns out to oppose not just dangerous ideas but true and useful ones; the security party has made the world less secure; the ownership party left you out of its circle of owners. Everything they have done has taken power away from you in some way, and consolidated it in Washington and in corporate boardrooms, so that a few people you have never met now have extraordinary power over what you can see, what you can buy, where you can work, what you can read, and how you can live. Much of this happened so gradually that you barely noticed the stages of it. But at last, they have laid the groundwork for the loss of the most basic civil freedom: the loss of habeas corpus, the loss of the sharp dividing line between a free society and an unfree society.

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If you, as a longstanding Republican voter, have come to the conclusion that the Republican Party does not deserve your vote this time, then I congratulate you on your powers of observation and reason. But before extending this hand of respect, I wish you to consider your part in all of this. I know that for years now you have been blaming many things on the liberals, but they were not responsible for all that has happened in the past five years. I am speaking now not of the Democratic Party per se, but of millions of your fellow citizens -- the much-maligned "liberals" who oppose the Republicans out of principle and (usually) support the Democrats out of pragmatism.

Liberals have their flaws and their failures, of course. But they did not rush into a war in Iraq for dishonest reasons; they did not then bungle that war; they did not cover up Mark Foley's predations against teenage boys, or destroy your schools with an avalanche of unscientific nonsense. They did not poison the political atmosphere with a barrage of death threats against their opponents, or destroy the country's reputation by torturing people and tearing up old alliances; they did not make you a peon to your creditors and try to loot your grandmother's only source of retirement income. They did not undermine the very foundations of freedom and due process, and pave the ground for a truly monarchical presidency and in effect a repeal of the American Revolution.

No, the Republican Party whom liberals oppose did all of that. And by supporting the Republican Party, you did all of that. If you wish to know who is responsible for these troubles that now face us, you must name yourself; only then will you understand the power that you actually have, and how little you need the "protection" of the fakers and phonies who have been promising it to you for so long. You can take matters into your own hands. You can, with your fellow citizens, pool your resources and strength to make things right, and force your government -- the government that you own, after all -- to serve you, rather than feeling that you must serve it. Breaking the Republican monopoly on power is an essential first step, but there is much to be done after that.

As you played your part in the damage, so you may play your part in the rebuilding -- but only when you realize that your part is and has always been your own. A mythical being called the "liberal elite" did not get you into this mess, nor will it get you out of it. At stake, in the long run, is not exchanging one set of masters for another, but a chance to be truly free. I hope that you will take that chance, not just in November, but in the long term, and that you will use that remarkable dedication to rebuild a just, open, and free society for yourself, your children, and your fellow citizens.

Amen. Please read the entire post.