I grew up during the Cold War. My parents, teachers, and other adults in my life spent a lot of time teaching me why America was a great country, and why the Communists were evil.

I was taught that the Bad Countries had dictators, or maybe puppet legislatures. Their governments would listen to phone calls, read mail, and otherwise spy on the population. Anyone expressing an anti-government viewpoint would be arrested, and vast portions of their citizenry were imprisoned and tortured in ghastly gulags. Worst of all, the “Commies” were determined to conquer the world, so we had to be armed and wary against this “evil empire.”

We Americans, on the other hand, lived in a country that chose its leaders by popular vote. Rather than a king or a dictator, we had a president who couldn’t do anything without the approval of Congress or the courts. Our government cannot go searching and snooping without a damn good reason. People are free to criticize the government without fear of retribution. No one can go to jail without due process: every opportunity to present a case before a jury of one’s peers. Best of all, America is a benign power and would never go to war except to defend its own freedom.

It was freedom and government by the people that make America great, and it was oppression and tyranny that made the Nazis and the Communists bad. But what have we become?

We’ve become a country where the highest court violates the will of the people and the constitution it’s sworn to defend to appoint a government that proceeds to snoop through our records, read our mail (e- and snail-), and monitor every activity possible. Those that oppose this government’s policies are demonized and condemned. The American government claims the right to arrest anyone it pleases, torture them, and hold them indefinitely without providing any reason or answering to any judge or jury. And now it engages in wars of conquest, to depose governments that it doesn’t like, to impose puppet regimes, and to rob other countries of their resources.

In short, we have become the kind of country that we were all taught to despise. So when we criticise the country that America has become, it is in reverence to the America we were taught to believe in. This country still exists within the hearts of its people, but it has been sabotaged by a gang of looters and thugs. This is a shame not only for those of us who live here, but for those in the rest of the world who look to America as a beacon of liberty and hope.

Let me leave with a small bit of hope: Germany is now one of the most progressive and liveable countries in the world. If the country that gave us Hitler can come back to civilization in such a short time, so can we.

The streets are filling up with people in Chilean cities.

All I can visualize is their singing this song.

(If you click on the above link, you may end up in iTunes.)

I should feel happy, but it’s hard.

This week, a lot of Bad Guys were flushed out of the political system. We have a new House and Senate that will keep a leash on the thieves and thugs in the executive branch. Yet I do not scream with joy. On the other hand, I’ve stopped screaming in disgust.

The winners of this latest political punch-up are an improvement on the vipers they vanquished, but they are not Good Enough. We must now hold THEIR feet to the fire, just as we did with the neocon fascists who still lurk in the background.

This election is not a step forward. It merely applies the brakes on the backward momentum. There are many more battles to be fought to stop our national decline before we can begin to repair the damage and move forward.

In spite of the brighter overall picture, there was plenty of Bad News this week. Many states – including my home state – voted to deny rights to citizens based on who they like to sleep with. It gravely disturbs me that bigotry is now enshrined in the Constitution of my home state.

It bothers me that money is more important than ideas in our elections. It also bothers me that the voting process in some parts of my country is more corrupt and inefficient than in a lot of third world countries. How can we have free and fair elections in Iraq if we can’t have them in the United States?

And why can’t opposing candidates be as respectful and gracious with each other before the election as they are afterwards?

So even though this political battle was won, it’s hard to celebrate when the political war is so far from over. Our opponents may be wounded, but they are still dangerous. We must remain vigilant and tenacious in our pursuit of all that is Right and Good.