One thought keeps popping up in my old noggin’ when I see coverage of the contentious “town hall” meetings on TV: there but for the grace of a McCain/Palin win go I. With all the talk of “death panels” (great name for a band, by the way) and “socialized medicine,” it’s awfully hard to know just what exactly is covered in Obama’s health plan because the bill itself is longer than “War and Peace” and there’s no Cliff’s Notes version that makes any sense. It’s madness, I say, madness (God help you if that’s a pre-existing condition).

Look, I voted for the guy, and I’m not even buying everything he’s selling. After eight years of Bush, I’m skeptical even more of politicians than I was before, and with good reason. I was pretty harsh on the ex-prez while he was still in office, so to be on the opposite side of all this sound and fury is downright “Twilight Zone” territory. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, at least as far as some people are concerned.

The Daily Show did a great piece recently about how Fox News, once the standard-bearer for the “with us or against us” mentality of Bush version 2.0, has turned now into the very thing it used to despise: liberal protestors of the current administration. I can’t say I see much wrong with their argument. The voices on the right who were so loud in support of Bush until the bitter end are now engaging in the same things they used to decry in their opponents on the left. Of course, you know Rush and the boys will never see the inherent contradictions of saying “support our president, unless he’s not one of us, in which case go ahead.” Patriotic furor under one administration becomes anti-government hatred under another.

What’s unsettling for me is that, when you poke a hornet’s nest, you’re likely to rouse up some unforeseen consequences. For every genuinely upset voice of opposition, there are at least one or two crazies out there looking not only to show their distaste with the current inhabitant of the White House but also let him know as forcefully as possible. Tell me that the images of people bringing loaded weapons to town hall meetings doesn’t scare the ever-loving crud out of you, and you’re a liar. That, or you’re one of those gun-toting loons.

I’m in a weird place, along with all my fellow former Bush-bashers. Now I’m on the inside looking out, more or less. To all the folks over the past eight years who had to put up with my ranting and raving about Bush, I will quote another ex-president: I feel your pain. Turnabout is fair play, and every time I’ve encountered someone lately who gripes about Obama I’ve held my tongue because I figure it’s only fair. But I’m also reminded of something that an old lady said to me once, after the post-election debacle of 2000 threatened to destroy my faith in the democratic process altogether: He’s our president, and we have to support him in that much even if we don’t agree with him.

I’ve never been one for blind allegiance, but I would ask those who don’t buy into “change we can believe in” to at least keep their opposition vocal. I’ve been lucky to only live through a failed attempt to kill a president, not a full-fledged assassination, and I’d like to keep it that way. Take your signs and your voices, if you must, but, as Johnny Cash once sang, don’t take your guns to town halls. None of us ever did when your guy was in charge, and you can at least grant us that courtesy.