If today had been like four years ago, I would be sitting with my fellow vacationing friends (in Canada, no less!), and we would all be gnashing our teeth, screaming in outrage, and threatening to stay in the lovely liberal embrace of our neighbors to the north.

But today isn’t like four years ago, at least, not for me. Oh, it took awhile… But a little over three years ago, something happened — a BIG something.

One of the calls I received in the afternoon of that terrible day was from one of my traveling companions. She was laughing, gloating actually, and said to me, “Poor Bushie… What’s he gonna do now?” Apparently, even in the midst of the horrors of that day, she’d managed to glean some measure of scadenfreude when looking at President Bush, sitting in that elementary school classroom, facing those children as the moment the crisis became known.

I was a coward, I admit it. I should have told her that, no, when I saw the same scene, the only words that came to my mind were, “Congratulations, Mr. Bush. You’ve just become the President of the United States,” and that all my support had shifted to him and my country in that moment. I should have told her that her laughter was obscene. I should of said a lot of things, but all I managed to say was, “Well, I don’t know about that…” (Damn my cowardice.)

But it was then that I knew my fellow Democrats and Progressives had begun to abandon everything I believed that liberalism really means. And I knew that I had not been the one who had left them, but they had left me.

So here I sit, four years later, happy, relieved, and with a tear in my eye that this election has gone the exact opposite of what I had hoped for four years ago. Though my awakening in these last few years has cost me the friendship of my almost-sister — a friend of over 25 years — who will no longer speak to me, as I am just too “hateful” now. Though it has turned too many conversations into minefields. Though it has caused me to lose respect for people I have admired. At least my eyes are open now… And I refuse to be a coward anymore.

Thanks for the great coverage, Roger! Your honestly about your own changes of heart have been a great comfort. Thank you for sharing your time and your thoughts with us.