“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

That Obama has been elected is such a relief to me and so many of my friends and family. Our country has, for too long, been led by people interested in greed and self-interest while inciting fear along with smoke and mirrors. To coin Obama a socialist or even a marxist is a blatant symptom of fear. People who have flourished by ripping off the little guy, depleting our natural resources and destroying our only home, Earth, starting wars preemptively and alienating the entire world are now scurrying around like the rats they really are.

It should be no surprise that the educated minds in our country, or the “intellectual elite” as the conservatives call us, have voted in the name of great change. The conservatives have become defensive, dependent on ignorance and insulting to anyone who questions them or requests discourse. The jingoism that is rife in the Republican party will, hopefully, be crushed. These people are fanatics, their energy comes from gluttony and greed, fundamental christianity that a lot of us just don’t buy, the negative side of patriotism or even, yes even today, racism. And finally, there are those that get their information from just one source and refuse to acknowledge the arguments on the other sides of an infinite sided object. The only other conclusion I can make is the rest are just too stupid or lazy to think for themselves and vote according to the opinions of those around them. The numbers are in. People who voted Republican this round are, fundamentally religious, old, rural, white or some combination of those. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s true. And obviously they’re a very small minority.

America’s young are sick and tired of our parents fucking up, quite frankly. So much of the crap they’ve caused and we’ve inherited can so easily be fixed it’s almost laughable. And to be honest, the only reason they got away with it is because they spoiled us and raised us to not care. After World War 2 everyone was interested in having fun. We didn’t care because our parents taught us not to by teaching us nothing at all.

Times are changing and the conservative values that, at one time, were noble but have since mutated into something ominous are dying off, finally. This is a global village now. We have a global economy. Race or creed is not an issue. Myself and my peers embrace other cultures, we mix our lives and our homes with colors from all over the world. My country, the USA, once looked at as a bastion of freedom and justice and of wealth and opportunity, a shelter for the world’s tired and poor, has been reduced to causing fear and distrust around the world. Some of the best minds in our country started expatriating to other countries because they saw our freedoms slowly being chipped away and feared military retaliation if the USA decided to bully the wrong country at the wrong time. Conservatives want to think that our country enjoys the same greatness that it did post World War 2, but we don’t.

Our country has become the schoolyard bully. We push our culture and our will on countries whenever we see fit. Our children score lower than most in international testing. We import huge percentages of our goods from overseas and then export our jobs.  And, most of all, until this election, we were powerless to change things.

We live in a country where huge companies control what is broadcast over our airwaves. Where they have now become capable of closing down entire small towns for the sake of their own profits. When our forefathers dreamed of a capitalist society I don’t think they ever dreamed of the monster that was to grow from deregulation. We live in a capitalist serf society where the very many work for the benefit of the very few. We’ve become fat and apathetic. So long as our personal happiness was not affected we were blind to the bigger picture. I shudder to recall how many times I’ve heard, over the past two decades,the statement, “Politics is boring. I don’t really care.”

Today, in the face of indisputable evidence our earth is sick, we choose to do nothing. Even small changes are looked upon as annoying and inconsequential to our own personal well-being. Out of laziness, inconvenience, and ignorance and the idea that the environment is someone else’s problem, we choose to lay stagnant to improve the world we will pass to our children.

Today, we live in a society that has voted away civil rights to the gay community that lives among us, has always lived among us and always will live among us, based on personal morals. A society that thinks a simple vote will make us go away. A society that thinks it’s okay to force their own beliefs on everyone else around them.  Today, we live in a country that truthfully has taxation without representation.

Today we live in a society that shuns the idea of legalized prostitution because of one group forcing their morals on the rest of our citizens. Its been here since the dawn of man. It’s not going away. So, instead of controlling the spread of STD’s such as AIDS, preventing the abuse of thousands of women in this country, doing without the tax revenue it would generate, and admitting that we really do have a basic human needs, we choose to continue to create a black market that will never go away.

Today, we live in a society that has turned a blind eye to the incarceration of peaceful non-violent criminals charged with marijuana infractions. There is a huge and powerful black market but acknowledgment that the war on drugs was lost before it started is pitifully ignored. So instead of decriminalizing and even legalizing a weed that our forefathers such as George Washington grew in their fields, we choose, instead, to ignore the benefits, the revenue streams, and the ridiculousness of the entire situation.

Well, it’s not too late. The puritanical ideals this country’s roots are grounded in are finally dying and fertilizing a new tree of freedom, peace, equality and benevolence for the earth and her residents. Finally, my generation and generations younger than me have risen above apathy. Basically, our country has strayed so very badly from the cradle it once was that everyone has taken notice. Yes, my peers were apathetic. But no more and we have a lot of work to clean up the shit we’ve inherited.