We could have done so much more to help alleviate suffering around the world and create a more-humane society for ourselves. But we blew it, by electing leaders whose agendas were infected by power, war, corruption and paranoia.

It is so easy, and therefore becoming rampant, to be negative today about the United States and its leadership. The nation will not be able to recover from the malaise without a new kind of president and a new kind of Congress.

We need someone new and different to ride into town at sundown. And that is not going to happen until at least 2008. And, tragically, we could make the same mistakes all over again at the ballot box.

What happened to the optimism so many people felt as the new century dawned and they looked upon our major problems of health care, education and energy as having solutions in sight and perhaps even within our reach?

Those problems have been forced into the background to fester and grow like malignant tumors while the government appears helpless to do anything but pursue its course of war, spying and winning bigger profits for its major backers — the oil corporations.

You know, I’m getting awfully disgusted with writing about our president and government. I’m not a political writer by nature; I have always preferred addressing social issues and personal experience. But since Bush took over in 2001, look what has happened to our country. Look what has happened to me. Look what has happened to you.

It wasn’t 9/11 that sent us reeling on a downward spiral; it was the Bush administration. And our descent began before those airliners hit the World Trade Center.

When this newspaper endorsed Al Gore just before the 2000 election, we wrote:

"The economy is booming, crime and drug use are down, deficits have turned into huge surpluses and the United States is not at war."

Remember those days of not so long ago, when we were able to seriously consider real human issues and not those drafted by the president and his New American Century advisers? We worried about what might happen with a leader like Bush, but could not have predicted the extent to which he would drag the nation down.

"With only five years as a governor behind him and a paltry knowledge of the economy and foreign affairs, he is nowhere near ready to be the leader of the free world," our editorial continued. Apparently he wasn’t ready to lead a free country either, since he has done so much to thwart liberty with the Patriot Act, surveillance and personal data collection.

Because he was not ready, the only way he could react to critical events was with bombs and troops, lies and deception, spying and secrecy. The goal of winning a war on terrorism was and remains a worthy one. But even in the 21st century there are old rules that are still valid, such as "the end does not justify the means."

Even with the president’s extreme and unjust means, after nearly five years he has been unable to deliver the nation to a safe and healthy recovery from the tragedy of 9/11.

We warned in 2000 that "George Bush would not stand up to the big polluters, the gun lobby, the far right wing of the Republican Party and the pharmaceutical companies," and that he "would appoint judges to the Supreme Court who would tear down a woman’s right to choose."

The die of his administration was cast even before the 2004 election, but in a shocker that left democracy apologists in hiding, Bush won the presidency a second time.

How? Certainly not by voters listening to our advice. The Star’s editorial not so much in support of John Kerry in 2004 but opposed to Bush said "the United States has gone from the most-admired nation in the world to the most reviled. Mr. Bush does not deserve a second term."

And, "Bush’s regime has been such a colossal disaster."

Since then, numerous people have come up to me to tell me how many former Bush supporters have jumped ship in the past year and a half. The mystery is what took them so long to see the light. If the regime was a colossal disaster in 2004, it has gotten much bigger and much worse than colossal since then.

Maybe, someday, I’ll be able to stop writing about the government.

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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com