The pay was $40 a week, a floor on which to unroll a sleeping bag and all the ham sandwiches I could eat, as long as there were enough left for the volunteers.

More than thirty years ago, working on the presidential campaign staff of George McGovern, my fellow grass roots and I rallied around the slogan "Come Home, America."

America did come home, but not that Election Day. It took another two years and the heroism of members of the Supreme Court, Congress and the media to bring down the Nixon White House, start an end to the Vietnam War and restore faith in government and the republic for which it stands.

Now we stand at the greatest political divide this nation has faced since Nixon and Vietnam, perhaps since even the Civil War. Once again, America has strayed from home, ignored its ideals and squandered its resistance to intolerance and greed in exchange for, as the Paul Simon song goes, "a pocketful full of mumbles. Such are promises."

In the days and weeks following 9/11, George Bush had the very international mandate he scorns John Kerry for pursuing. Sharing our anger and grief, European newspapers headlined, "We Are All Americans." Now they barely can stand to be on the same planet. And no wonder.

Endorsing Kerry, the New Republic Magazine, which in the past has supported Bush's foreign policy, notes, "The president's war on terrorism, which initially offered a striking contrast to his special interest-driven domestic agenda, has come to resemble it. The common thread is ideological certainty untroubled by empirical evidence, intellectual curiosity, or open debate.

"The ideology that guides this president's war on terrorism is more appealing than the corporate cronyism that guides his domestic policy. But it has been pursued with the same sectarian, thuggish, and ultimately self-defeating spirit. "

As this week began, two news items summed it all up.

First, the front page story in Monday's New York Times: despite warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency, nearly 380 tons of the high explosives HMX, RDX and PETN, left unguarded after the American invasion of Iraq, have been stolen.

In May, the IAEA described the missing stockpile as "the greatest explosives bonanza in history." In 1988, less than a pound of this stuff, more powerful than TNT, brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Bush and his cohort arrogantly ignored the military's advice that the force being sent to Iraq was insufficient to guard the detritus of Saddam's war machine and keep the peace.

Now, in their zeal to use Iraq as a fallacious front in the war against al Qaeda, not only has the White House created a real front, and encouraged terrorist recruitment, they've allowed the disappearance of munitions that could result in thousands of terrorist attacks. These explosives can even be used as triggers for those famous weapons of mass destruction.

Second, there's this, in a Sunday Washington Post article about grassroots volunteers traveling nationwide in the last days of the campaign to work for their candidates:

"While pro-Kerry volunteers were eager to talk about their travels and efforts, Republican volunteers even in small towns referred a reporter to the Republican National Committee, saying they had been instructed not to talk about their activities."

It's emblematic of the extremes of secrecy to which this administration and the Republican Party will go to cover their tracks and hide the truth from the American people.

Suppressing or rewriting reports and regulations, firing or smearing any who dare dissent, attempts to distract the public with hollow, secondary issues are camouflage for a deliberate attempt to dismantle civil liberties, cripple government and endanger democracy. "Rove-ism" is McCarthyism with a squirting flower.

To those who, four years ago, voted for George Bush, thinking you were supporting compassionate conservatism and an end to bitter partisanship, you have been betrayed. When you enter your polling place next Tuesday, remember that old familiar adage; the one that begins, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice..."

To those who voted for Vice President Gore, hoping to continue years of prosperity, fiscal sanity, and informed, sincere attempts to achieve global peace and cooperation, you have another, admittedly flawed, choice and chance.

Vote early, vote often. But this time, concentrate.

Michael Winship, Writers Guild of America Award winner and former writer with Bill Moyers. He can be reached at BartlebyMW@aol.com

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