Via Avedon comes a link to this marvelous essay by Jane Smiley at HuffPo, directed to the recent high-profile defectors from BushWorld:

1. Bush doesn’t know you disagree with him.
2. Bush doesn’t care whether you disagree with him.
3. Bush does what he feels like doing and he deeply resents being told, even politely, that he ought to do anything else.
4. President Bush is your creation.
5. Tyranny is your creation.
6. As Bad as Bush is, Cheney is Worse.

Now you are fleeing him, but it’s only because he’s got the earmarks of a loser. Your problem is that you don’t know why he’s losing. You think he’s made mistakes. But no. He’s losing because the ideas that you taught him and demonstrated for him are bad ideas, self-destructive ideas, and even suicidal ideas. And they are immoral ideas. You should be ashamed of yourselves because not only have your ideas not worked to make the world a better place, they were inhumane and cruel to begin with, and they have served to cultivate and excuse the inhumane and cruel character traits of those who profess them.

The conclusion is wonderful, but the whole essay is emblematic of the feelings of many many people (see the latest poll numbers). Read it all.