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"We have met the enemy, and he is us."

— Walt Kelly, who pens the "Pogo" cartoon.

The following question goes out to those who haven't voted for a Republican presidential candidate — ever. You don't mind being thought of as "liberal" and consider the decade to this point largely a ceaseless nightmare. The question is with you in mind.

Maybe you dabbled with Ralph Nader or John Anderson way back when, but come November 2008, you're going to vote, and, paper trail a-flying, you're voting Democratic. No more messing around. Seven years of George W. Bush has taught you that.

Now here's the question: How the heck can we screw things up this time?

Answer: We might very well manage, and we're off to a blazingly good start in the screwing-things-up department.

One might think a Democratic win in November is a slam dunk: a Republican administration with 28-to-32 percent approval ratings, an occupation of Iraq that lingers like political malaria and, now, a tanking economy. Americans want change, and Republicans seem to offer anything but. Still, we have the not-so-secret weapon: ourselves.

For example, see how Democrats perversely twist the wonderful fact that its top two candidates are a woman and a person of color. The beauty of this reality lasted about four days — now replaced with increasingly divisive calls of sexism and racism between campaigns.

As the party of inclusion, Democrats of the 21st century don't share the Republican embarrassment of still having a slate of stunningly similar, old white guys running for president. Instead, Democrats actually deal with politics of gender and race but aren't doing a very good job of handling it.

This fallout is understandable, to an extent. This is a chance — a darned good one, given the atmosphere — to have our first female president. Or our first minority one. The stakes are high for groups that have been shamefully excluded in the past.

But how much damage will be done by a race-gender Balkanization in the primaries? How many will be upset to the point of disaffection come November?

Add to this a peculiar ailment common to the American liberal — a form of competitive self-righteousness I call "I am more philosophically pure than you, and I can prove it!" Symptoms include a remarkable ability to find fault with any statement by anybody at any time. We utilize this skill against political enemies but save our most thorough deconstructions for thoughts of alleged political friends. Yes, like the Mafia, we prefer to kill our own.

Take the Walt Kelly quote above. It says "he is us" — not "she" or "it." That's obviously sexist, even if the he is referring to an enemy. And so on. And so on. Ad infinitum.

Will we be able to go back to enjoying the fact that Obama and Clinton represent two groups better poised than ever to sit in the White House? Will the bitterness mellow and the sight of four more Republican years galvanize us, finally? You're pretty nervous, aren't you? I know I am.