Ladies & gentlemen, I'm pleased to report that our national epidemic of Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) is over. That's the good news. The bad news is that the "cure", Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS), may be worse than the disease.

I'm forever both amused and dismayed by the need of some people to demonize their political opponents. In their world, it's not possible for good people to simply disagree about the best way to shape America. If you disagree with them, you're evil.

Actually, it's even worse than that. If you simply belong to the other party, you're evil. Your policies and viewpoints actually don't have anything to do with it.

Remember back to the heady days of May 2004? The American Left practically had a collective orgasm over the idea that John Kerry would choose John McCain as his running mate? It was, they said, a "dream team". Now, suddenly, John McCain is TEH EVUL. John McCain hasn't changed, he's just no longer useful to the Left.

Likewise, after over a decade of demonizing Hillary Clinton, the Right suddenly couldn't sympathize and root for her enough when her continued candidacy started to put the hurt into Barack Obama.

People identify with the Democrat or Republican party the same way as they do with the Green Bay Packers or Boston Red Sox. Think about it, is the reaction to Clinton or McCain really any different than the reaction of Packer fans to the possibility of Randy Moss joining the team or the reality of Brett Favre leaving it?

Do most people really care about anything other than making sure that their "team" wins? I doubt it. If people actually cared about the issues, we'd talk about them and debate various approaches to America's problems. Instead, we play "gotcha" after every speech and dig up mountains of dirt on candidates, hoping something will finally stick.

I hate the games. I hate the coverage. I hate politics. I feel like the money I've given to the Institute for Justice will do far more for my country than any vote I'll cast in November.