Remember when the Republicans used to be part of the United States? Where they would actually participate in honest debates in the Senate, and worked with Democrats to pass meaningful legislation? Remember when Republicans acted like statesmen, and didn't spend all day bashing Democrats as being worse than terrorists on TV? Those were the days. It seemed like we actually had a functioning country.

Those days have been gone since Newt Gingrich began his tirade, and the Republican's took over of Congress in 1994. From that day on it has been relentless, nonproductive Democrat bashing, with special emphasis on dehumanizing and ridiculing President Clinton. They weren't worried about the country, or the office of the President, or anything other than their blind ambitions.

Just as Republicans had been in lockstep in their hatred and loathing of Bill Clinton, they have been united in their overt adoration and protection of their dim bulb president George Bush, no matter how offensive his policies, and regardless of Bush's disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law. Nine trillion dollar national debt and huge tax cuts for the wealthy? No problem. Three year occupation of Iraq, with that country now descending into civil war? No biggie. Breaking the law by spying on American citizens? Great idea. Insulting and belittling our allies around the world? You betcha! Dismantling agencies designed to protect Americans like FEMA, while constantly babbling on about protecting the American people? Fantastic. Torturing prisoners, and even killing some of them? Stupendous.

It has been difficult for Democrats to understand how Republicans of all stripes have pretty much stood behind George Bush and his anti-American, anti-democratic, amoral and nonproductive policies for years. It was starting to seem like none of them had a conscience, and none of them cared about what was good for the nation. They only seemed concerned with what was good for the Republican Party. But now that seems to be changing. Perhaps it is the debacle in Iraq, and the insane happy talk coming from the administration about it. Perhaps it is the huge expansion of the power and scope of the federal government; the antithesis of the Republican's style of governance. It's difficult to say what is causing the cracks in the Republican political monolith.

But now, even on ultra-conservative shows like "Scarborough country", the question is being raised: "is George Bush an idiot?". It's becoming a more and more difficult question to avoid. George Bush acts like a mentally challenged junior high school teenager with a severe mean streak. He covers his mean streak with mean-spirited jokes directed at all the people around him, and I wonder how that doesn't wear very thin, very quickly. Indeed, George Bush's "mental midget" status is now becoming the focus of some Republicans who wonder if the mess this country is in may have something to do with the Idiot in Chief's abysmal decision-making abilities. So nice of them to notice... finally.

I wonder, now that the ice is broken, if more Republicans might start questioning the highly questionable policies of the Bush administration? I also wonder if the mainstream news media might finally decide that some of the Bush administration's policies are actually bad for the country, and worth criticizing? That would be another big change. So far the media have helped George Bush beat the drums of war in Iraq, and facilitated that debacle with copious quantities of happy talk. Whatever the reasons for this shift in mindset among the Republicans, and the mainstream news media, it is wholeheartedly welcomed by Democratic Americans.

For years now Democrats have wondered what happened to the civility, comity and sense of shared purpose in America. With Republicans and the news media in reflexive defense mode of George Bush, much harm could be done, but little progress was possible. America was disintegrating into an empire in decline, resembling a high school cafeteria food fight more than a global superpower. But as the Republican edifice begins to crumble, and they all notice that the king has no clothes, or rather that the President has no brains, they might actually consider rejoining the United States of America. We Democrats will welcome them back wholeheartedly. It's been lonely here in America talking about protecting the Constitution, abiding by the rule of law, and putting no man above the law. It will be wonderful to have the Republicans back on board with the Constitution of the United States. Republicans may trickle back slowly at first, but as they see that the Constitution is good, and the rule of law is imperative, they will come back in droves. Welcome back folks, welcome back to the United States of America!