Jenna Bush's Beautiful Wedding Heals America

On a lovely spring Saturday in Texas, just as the sun set, Jenna Bush had her wedding at her father's prop "ranch" in Crawford. And for that special moment -- or at least a day later, when the White House released some nice pictures from the exclusive event -- America was one nation again.

Since the divisive election of 2000 that led to the heartbreaking recount in Florida, there have been Two Americas, and the angry middle-class and working-class people of this large nation have been unable to agree on anything for any reason.

But our horrible, maddening first eight years of this awful century were all forgotten for a brief, beautiful moment over the weekend, when George W. Bush Junior's daughter was married to this one guy, Henry Hager.

America grew up with Jenna Bush and her twin sister, the other one. We've cried together, gotten drunk together ... and that's about it, really. That is all we've done in this 21st Century and Third Millennium, so far.

So to see Our Jenna, America's Princess, standing there looking radiant in her Oscar de la Renta gown and posed so elegantly by the livestock pond on her parents' vacation property, it made us all take a deep breath and realize we are not so different after all.

We all want our daughters to be beautiful brides at their weddings, and like proud papa George W. Bush Junior, we are all "emotional wrecks" when we see our children get married -- even if, for many of us, the emotional condition is temporary.

We all want money, and a nice big spread of land, and a fancy house, and more money. We all want a seaside Yankee Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. We all want racing boats and private boathouses.

And what American wouldn't want to have their father and grandfather be U.S. presidents, and their great-grandfather be a king-making Cold War senator?

But what we want more than anything, as Americans, is to live vulgar criminal lives with no consequences, forever, like the Hip Hop stars, but whiter. We want to get high, drive drunk, ignore homework, evade the draft, have Ivy League educations, eat cookies, watch football, start wars, dance like fools, and still be rich as kings and talk directly to Jesus.

Sure, that's unrealistic for all but maybe a few thousand of the 300 million people in this country. But absurdist dreams made this country what it is, and we can all dream of a nice wedding for our daughter once she cleaned up her act.

Today, thanks to Jenna, we are all Americans.

Ken Layne is the editor of Wonkette.