America divided

In the run-up to the 2000 elections, George W. Bush told us that he was a uniter, not a divider.

But, after eight years with Bush in the White House, America is so much more divided than it was before he became president.

Blame it on Karl Rove, whose win-at-all-costs philosophy made it the norm to run policial campaigns based on mud-slinging and lies.

Blame it on Dick Cheney, the alleged ventriloquist to Bush's dummy, with a decade-old agenda, and a personality that's about as warm and compassionate as a big block of dry ice.

Or blame it on Bush himself, whose cowboy-style foreign policy and drunken-sailor spending habits have turned America from a glowing land of opportunity to a rogue nation with a huge pile of debt.

But we must also blame Republican presidential candidate John McCain. He may call himself a maverick. But on the campaign trail, as in the Senate, he willingly supports and propagates Bush's divisive methods.

With his aggressive, shoot-first foreign policy.

With his pro-rich, pro-corporation economic policies.

And with his dirty campaign tactics, which even Karl Rove has criticized.

If McCain happens to win this election, I have no reason to believe that the divisiveness will end.

Republican vs. Democrat, rich vs. poor, white vs. black, America vs. the world, "us" vs. "them".

Imagine what eight more years of it will do to this nation.