Everyday a new dilemma appears! And everyday Pres Bush is in a different place -- both physically and mentally -- just like he was in his campaign for the presidency. Do you remember his vow, "We are not nation builders!"

So, what's different now? Of course, it's the "war". President Bush has skillfully used his "War Against Terror" to cow us into thinking that waging war against the world is our only way to restitution. Do I have a solution? No! But then I don't think anyone else has either. But we should have hope, as there is an available response out there -- a fairly damning one -- the Democrats. However, the question is whether these newly stirred Democrats are willing to take up the gauntlet again to get us out of trouble once more.

Defensiveness is the natural Democratic posture, as bullying is the natural Republican posture. But that puts us right back into our dilemma as a new poll reports that 82 percent of the country's Democrats believe that the man who won the popular vote in 2000 "should say nothing critical" about the man who lost it. Can you imagine 8 in 10 Republicans urging their party leader to refrain from criticizing an incumbent Democrat?

Patriotic fervor and wartime self-censorship have only worsened what were pre-existing conditions. Five months after Sept. 11, Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader, made an announcement that he might pose some questions about the future direction of the war to the Republican congressional leadership. They all but called him a traitor! Obviously their tactic worked as those questions led to no debate at all.

That same poll of Democrats showed that barely 40 percent of his party mates wanted Mr. Gore to run for president again in 2004. So, what happened since last August when two-thirds of Democrats wanted him to run? Whatever one thinks of the former vice president, their current response strikes me as a sign of psychological frailty in party members. Why? Because a catastrophic event, an horrendous attack, a "war" sent Mr. Bush's popularity soaring sky high?

And how much effort of self-transcendence would it take for Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Tom Daschle, Richard Gephardt and other party leaders to make the case that the Republicans' policies are unpatriotic. In the aftermath of Sept. 11 we heard a lot about unity and common sacrifice. This was the instinctive and the correct response to attacks aimed at every one of us, and it resonated deeply.

Just wars, like World War II, have a leveling effect: they tend to speed up change, blur social distinctions, and bind together people who might otherwise distrust or dislike one another. In the current war, one hears a lot less about common sacrifice than before. Little has been asked of anyone out of uniform, and yet much is being offered to a lucky few with the right connections. President Bush squandered a rare opportunity to tap the civic desire that runs beneath the gleaming surfaces of American life. Yet still does patriotism continue to be the administration's chief tool in pushing its agenda, though few top officials have dared to be quite as direct as Attorney General John Ashcroft who, last December at a Senate hearing, charged that critics of administration security measures "only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."

As if that isn't what the current administration has done already! I could make a long list of yikes and gripes but that would only lead me into redundancy. Instead I will echo the comments made in Florida earlier this month by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts who, shielded by his service in Vietnam, came close:

"Patriotism is not defined by avoidance of issues at home," he said. "Patriotism is the courage to fight for those things that strengthen and defend our nation. Our fight is for fundamental fairness."

Sept. 11, which left Democrats silent for so long, should now help them find their voice. And you can almost hear it.