How do you feel that Bush has affected you in a negative way?

[coloradodem2005]

I mean you personally. For me, graduating college to a horrible job market. No jobs that fit me and I feel that I can handle or that I have any desire for. Needless to say, I am far from the worst off though. How about you?

[fortyfeetunder]

1. I can understand and agree

These last three years was far worse than the Reagan years, and I was unemployed for about 18 months then!

I don't have this sense of personal security or inner peace. I always feel stressed out and I don't like that feeling. I should just be glad to have a job and a roof over my head.

[demgrrrll]

2. You may think this is off the mark but for me it is the sadness and

general malaise that I feel when I am in a crowd. He has
wounded all of us. His core supporters are not a joyful
crowd. Someone wrote that his supporters are not the live
and let live type, more like the kid bully who beat up the
other kids and took away their toys. I think there
is more of that kind of energy floating around. Hope vs. despair.
I don't think I can stand 4 more years of this nightmare.

[metisnation]

4. all wrong

way to frequent..the people will be heard in november.

[struggle4progress]

36. Not at all off the mark. The Bushistas have hurt America's soul.

:evilfrown:

[Piperay]

40. I agree completely

I can't say that I have been hurt in a material way. I am angry all the time and I have lost all hope that this regime could or would ever make the right decision about anything. The last 4 years have shown this bunch to be totally incompetant, greedy, evil and stupid. After 8 years of feeling good about my country again with Clinton leading us, now I feel only shame and dispair. :-(

[Career Prole]

3. Me? I'd been off the anti-depressants for five years.

Bush put me back on 'em.
I was happy and funny. Now you can cut my cynicism with a knife.
Worst of all, I had such high hopes for my daughter, despite our lack of money. Now, it appears that the lack of money will be the least of her worries.
The country went from "Alright" to "All Bite" in one term of the presidency.

Rick

[Valerie5555]

9. Or from in deeply good hands under Clinton to being in deep kaka under

Bush. eom.

[Career Prole]

10. Preeeeeee-cisely!

:toast:

[Valerie5555]

17. Not to mention the people with the stored food for Y2K , who you thought

were "loco, crazy flakes" about 5 years ago, you now thought were the epitome of sanity.

Oh what a difference 1/2 a decade made. <Sigh>

[Career Prole]

28. I wonder if that stuff's still good?

I'd forgotten all about it. Six giant boxes in my storage shed that my wacko end-times MIL sent. Full of shiny silver tins of powdered eggs, powdered milk, powdered Twinkies, powdered jujubes...
Surely Official End-Times Food must last longer than five years in storage?

[Valerie5555]

30. Am sure that stuff, Art Bell recommended or otherwise, is still good and

still "keeps," especially if it's powdered.

[Career Prole]

33. Well that's a bit of good news at long last!

I wouldn't eat the stuff, but it's nice to know if I find myself really bored I can fetch out a can and do a recreation of that scene from Scarface when Pacino has the mountain of coke on his desk and just plants his face in it to freak out company.
I can't just get rid of it, because I can't afford the environmental impact study which I'm sure I'd need.

[Valerie5555]

34. Maybe saving the stuff just in case may be a good idea eom

:D

[IconoclastIlene]

5. Its been like nonstop PMS for 3 years.

and I cannot wait until its over!!!

[Itchinjim]

56. Yeah, me too and I'm a man.

[BillZBubb]

6. I am poorer than I was 4 years ago--certainly not better off.

That's the personal side. Generally, I think the bastard has just about ruined the future finances of the country. We'll all pay a heavy price for that down the road.

[trag]

7. I'm spending to much

money for everything now. From daycare, health care, to the grocery store. It's getting way out of hand. I'm sure some people could write a novel on this post.

[Unperson 309]

27. Very True!

When the Big Dog was in office, we had around $150,000.00 in the bank. We bought a house! Then came Bush! Then came 9/11.

The house sold for under $90,000.00 on a distress sale and we now have $5,000.00 left after paying off our debts!

Flat out, we're ruined. Fortunately, I have my health and we are both still working, but the kid is in Iraq shooting at folks that are darker than he is. Oh, well. He's doing OK with his own family now, but there'll be nothing to leave him in our wills.

I blame the lousy real estate market on the fears after 9/11! So, yeah, Bush crapped all over our retirement.

309

[Geo55]

8. First and formost

He has disgraced my country....a constant lingering sadness

[noiretextatique]

15. i agree with you....he is a disgrace

i have (almost) lost faith in this country because of bush, inc.

[tridim]

11. I can't wait until he's gone

because I admit I'm not a very fun person to be around since 2000. I was so much happier and carefree during the 90's. I want to be that person again damnit! I'm not saying Kerry will get a free ride from me, but I trust him enough that I won't have to pay microscopically-close attention to the news 16 hours a day. That's not good for the social life.

[baby_bear]

12. I'm a career scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency

Need I say more?

Bush has destroyed the good image we had and ignores the advice and hard work of the people who have devoted their lives to protecting human health and the environment at EPA.

It will be difficult to overcome the damage he has wrought, even if limited to one term.

s_m

[VolcanoJen]

13. That constant, numbing sense of impending doom.

Nothing has felt right in the world since he became its leader, and ever since December 2000, and especially 9/11, I've just felt this nagging uneasiness. It's harder to be happier and joyful. My personal finances are stuck in a holding pattern - it used to be I had no difficulty saving money. Everything just seems more expensive. People around me seem more bitter.

But mostly, that numbing sense of impending doom. That's what he's done to me personally.

[Carolina]

53. impending doom ...

you are so right, VJ. My husband has said repeatedly that I am all doom and gloom. And it all started when the Extreme Court stopped the vote counting in FL. I knew it was over then, and I have been in a constant state of pissed-off-ivity since.

A bitter cynicism about this country has consumed me and I know I am not the same person I was and surely am less pleasant to be around. I loathe repukes (actually that started with Newt's ascendancy in the 1994
midterm elections) and it has changed my relationships with people. I avoid former friends who support the Bushistas and actually feel disdainful toward them. I cannot/will not watch a film with a repuke star ... the weekend premiere of the cable movie Ike starring Tom Selleck (:puke:) being a prime example. And I use the F-word (as in WTF) often and without shame.

[Isere]

14. YES!

My whole attitude towards my country has changed. I am now ashamed.
I am now afraid. I am now pessimistic about our future.

[bushwakker]

16. my psoriasis has worsened considerably

[shraby]

18. I feel like we're on the edge

and something is going to happen and it's not going to be good. I go outside at night and look up at the stars and ask what's it going to be? What?

[seabeyond]

19. the few friends i have, staying away from me.

i am looking at finding a different school for my children. my husband is so tired of me obsesssed with this. he bought a business two years ago as the companies quit spending money.

i am going mAd MaD MAD i tell ya

[Career Prole]

35. I'm going to spend my 1000th post with you.

I live out in the middle of Texas. I was pretty sure I was the only liberal in the area. I drove off the old gang when things got so bad in the winter of 2002 that ignoring politics seemed irresponsible to the point of criminal negligence.
I wrote a letter to the editor or two (or three) and started alienating acqaintances too, but a girl I had once known briefly through work looked me up because she was a liberal too. I hadn't known. Another guy wrote to the paper a few months after that and she looked him up in the phone book and called him. We all had lunch together. There's seven of us now. For a long time we've been clinging to one another like shipwreck survivors bobbing in a big angry sea, and boy was I glad they were there. We've become very good friends in that lifeboat, faster than any friendships I'd ever forged before, and closer than "plain old friends" too.
We've seen land off in the distance, and the current surely seems to be carrying us toward it, but we ain't gonna stop paddling, no.
You're in the lifeboat too, you know. Keep paddling and don't think about those damned sharks...we're almost there! :grouphug:

[Isere]

44. Thanks, Career Prole!

Congrats on your 1,000th post. It was a very good one, too! Seeking out community is a great survival tactic and it seems to have served you well in hostile territory.
DU is another lifeboat in which we all find solace.
Grouphugs to you and to all the others here!

[Career Prole]

51. Thanks, Isere!

I'm lovin' the lifeboat! The paddling's given me a case of dishpan hands you wouldn't believe, but they'll deprune after a while in the sun.
Hugs backatcha!

[seabeyond]

49. the 1000th post, and on me, ah the nicest

havent even had my fill of coffee yet but feel all warm and fuzzy. thank you

i am in panhandle of texas, so i know what you speak. and what an interesting way people have developed in your life. i turly sitin amazement, this time with bush in the office, how this has become forefront on chosing friends. never have i seen us so divided and grouped as a people

bow and embrace (see how much i dont belong in texas, bah ha hah)

[Career Prole]

50. "This too shall pass", seabeyond...

There'll be a post-Bush United States. Just hold onto that. It's already a lot easier to get one's mind around that hope now than it was a year ago.
Someday we'll all look back on this and...
Well, someday we'll all look back on this!:D

P.S. Don't go mad in Texas. State mental health services are damned near non-existent. ;)

Rick
Returning bow and embrace

[Carolina]

54. great post

when I feel at my worst, I'll remember your shipwreck/lifeboat analogy.

Living in SC is similar to being in Texas, since sometimes I too feel all alone. But I'm not. There are kindred spririts out here, there is hope, and land is now visible.

Thanks :hi:

[Career Prole]

55. Thank you! A buddy of mine here is from Anderson, SC

He's one of the "I'm a conservative cuz everyone I've ever met is conservative" types. You know...the kind who never really put much thought into their thinking. Other than politics we get along pretty well, and I don't mind sittin' on the porch drinkin' beer and talkin' s**t with him. He's had the bulletin board by his office filled with xerox copies of some really objectionable pro-war cartoons and photoshopped stuff since 9/11.
I went up there this weekend to fix a machine, and the bulletin board is now bare. :)
I haven't mentioned it to him, but evidently the epiphany came sometime last week.
Land ho!:D

[Carolina]

58. great, I'm all for such epiphanies

PS: just noticed your signature line. I'm gonna have to borrow it since these Bush bastards have turned me into a mighty mean cussin machine. WTF and fuckin asshole(s) pop out of my mouth like a rappers when per chance I see or hear one of them on the airwaves. I'll be in my office with NPR on (what a joke sometimes) when a snippet of a speech from Rumsfailed or Shit-for-brains is played and I actually talk out loud to the radio: oh shut the fuck up shithead ...

I have been overheard and I don't even give a rip; I'm no longer muted, or embarassed.

Land ho, indeed!

[Career Prole]

59. LOL!! I'll sit here listening to CNN and then that thoughtful warning they

add goes off..."Ah'm George Dubya Bush, and Ah approve..."
That's as far as it gets before I switch to ESPN without even looking up from my work. :D

[Ready4Change]

20. 4 years of having to apologize for my nations actions.

I know people from Canada, England and Germany. They ask me what is going on here? (Our leaders are corrupt.) How can we be acting so wrongly. (Same answer.) Haven't we heard this news story or that news story, etc? (Often, no, I haven't. In some cases I hear the story weeks or months later.)

I am sick that, anymore, my only answer to those questions is: :shrug:

I am sick of all this administration does so wrong, and how little it gets anywhere close to right. I am sick of how it lies, both subtly and brazenly.

I am sick that our media has for so long failed to call this administration to task.

I am sick that protests are being limited to "free speech zones" when all of the USA is supposed to be a free speech zone.

I am sick that, due to Diebold and other electronic voting companies equipment, millions of Americans will not be assured of having their votes correctly applied. I am sick that, even now, many of them don't know the peril their votes are in. I am sick with surety that, no matter WHO wins in November, 50% of America will become outraged AFTER the fact, and we'll have trouble that'll make 2000 look like tiddly winks.

And I am sick of hearing that so many Americans just don't care. And I am frightened to discover, in talking to some people, that it's true.

I want my USA back.

[Valerie5555]

21. Not to mention having the uncontrollable urge to memorize the words to "O

Canada," and getting into the habit of saying "eh," so people would think you're Canadian eh

[demgrrrll]

24. I just read that Kerry has teams of people looking at the Diebold

situation and the felon voter purge situation. I was glad
to read that they are taking a proactive approach. I vaguely
remember reading something about people signing affidavits
attesting to their vote for Kerry. I am not sure how that will
play out in the election.

[kaitykaity]

22. To call me obsessive would be an understatement.

I just had my car repo'd, but I don't care.
I haven't worked in almost two years, but I don't care.
I feel like Bush is going to do whatever it takes to
win, and that includes blowing up the world. So what
do I care if my credit goes to hell???

[napi21]

23. He caused me to hate.

I don't ever remember hating anyone....ever! I've not liked people. There have been people I didn't want to associate with. But I can honestly NEVER hated anyone. I can't even stand to watch him on TV. As much as I believe you need to hear what the opposition has to say, I can't stand the constant smirk, the inability to complete an entire sentence without saying uh, er, ah, hmm. I hate him for making me feel this way about another human being.

[Quahog]

43. EXACTLY what I have been thinking

People know me as a happy person. I make it a point to be cheerful to people who are nasty to me. I simply feel better when I am being positive and nice, I get nothing personally out of hatred.

But I can't control my feelings of hate toward bush* and his cabal. I recognize this as a failing on my part, as a Christian, as a human being, I don't feel it's right to go around hating people (not that I LOVE everyone, there are lots of people that I'm kind of neutral about, but I always try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt).

I've always believed that there is some shred of goodness in all people, no matter how evil some individuals may seem. bush* challenges that belief, and inspires me to hate. That's a major change in my life, and I do not like it one bit.

[Valerie5555]

25. Have the urge to send him an e mail at

[e-mail] and call him an "asshole."

[natrat]

29. i think

thats a violation of the patriot act

[Valerie5555]

32. If you're really agent Tom in disguise, don't worry for I would really

only do that if I'm really peeved off or :grr:, :mad:, or :argh:.

[Unperson 309]

26. I'm a Private Contractor, a Consultant

so to speak (underemployed!) and I find that I have a LOT fewer customers today than I did four years ago. Fewer calls, fewer consults because in my line, what I do is considered more a "luxury" than a necessity, so when they're cutting costs, *I* end up out of the loop.

I'm probably making 50% what I did before Bonzo was selected. Grrr!

309

[coloradodem2005]

37. That sucks.

don't use John Bonham's nickname in relation to Bush. You are insulting one of the greatest rock drummers who ever lived.

[MrSlayer]

31. No work in 5 months so far this year.

And I've missed a total of 18 since the Chimp stepped in.

[Djinn]

38. Dragged my country

into yet another war that is supposedly to make sure if we're ever invaded that the US would come to our aid - we fought two war for the UK and now three for the US, and the obvious fact is that the only nation that could/would conceivably invade within the next century would be China - and there's NO WAY in hell that the US would defend Australia (read market of 17 million) from China (read market of over a billion).

I s'pose this is really down to our Prime Miniature but when his head is so jammed up Bush's rear end it means basically what he does we do.

People used to like Australians elsewhere in the world - not so much now - I used to only ever have to defend against the usual "kangaroo/outback/sport/lack of culture thing" and it's was always pretty lighthearted - now it's all about war

[neebob]

39. Long story short, he's caused me to realize

that my livelihood could go poof on one of his whims. I worry about losing my 15-year-old son in his next bullshit war, and in general I go around with this icky, disgusted, fearful feeling that I didn't have before he took office. I have bad feelings toward him and people who support him that I wouldn't have if he weren't in a position of power.

[Eurobabe]

41. let me count the ways!!

almost four years of negativity in my soul (if I get cancer, Bu$h you are to blame!!) loss of belief in the goodness of America, fear for the future, deep concern for the world my daughters (both in 20s) have inherited from this maladministration. daily anxiety about what these assholes are going to do next...

and that's my short list!

[area51]

42. "How do you feel that Bush has affected you in a negative way?"

Bush crashed this country's economy in the same way that Herbert Hoover did, with voodoo/trickle-down economics, and I & friends became unemployed. Never before did I & friends have such difficulty in finding a job. G.W. "Hoover": worst "president" ever.

[BiggJawn]

45. Dumbass has stressed-out my ESSO....

No "Amorous feelings".

Hope I don't have to draw a picture....

[mopaul]

46. i've become an incredible asshole.....or maybe i was already

and it's just amped up now. but i can't see anything but gloom and doom on the horizon. it'll take decades to repair the damage.

[LizW]

47. Two layoffs

for my husband since Bush was selected. Each time he was able to get another job, but at 15% less pay the first time, and 7% less than that the second time.

We're still fine, because we live fairly simply and frugally, but it's frustrating to keep going backward while working so hard.

The child tax credit that we got was more than absorbed by higher energy costs and a jump in local property taxes. There was no noticable difference in our federal income taxes. If we got a tax cut, I couldn't tell.

[October]

48. I worry about my children's future --- the draft

After 8 years of peace and prosperity...everything's changed.

Also, my mom is in rehab after a stroke (during elective surgery), and the whole Medicare/Medicaid deal is a nightmare. Talk about insufficient -- and it's only going to get worse (if you read Krugman). (My mother, by the way, is/was and ardent Bush fan --photos of the guy and all <wretch>. The irony is glaring. There she sits in a nursing home, wondering why Medicare/Medicaid won't do more.)

If there's any saving grace, it's that she may not remember what a wing-nut she once was. (Not to be distasteful...but oh my, what I've had to put up with over the last 4 years.)

[Randi_Listener]

52. 2 personal effects

1. Ephedra ban - dumb as shit

2. Howard Stern off Clear Channel - dumber that shit

[libcurious]

57. Well, lets see

I think I will probably post one of only a few honest answers, so here goes:
I am embarrassed by this administration and all the crimes and scandals put forth by them. I thought maybe we could get away from the embarrassment label put on our president by clinton and all is crap but instead we got 4 more years of it. My only solace is hoping that maybe if we can get kerry in, it will finally be a respected position again.