I’ve avoided saying too much about the midterm elections, mostly because the results are depressing, infuriating, and mystifying. Also, I don’t think the internet needs one more shrill voice proclaiming how Republicans are going to rape the environment just for the hell of it, burn gay people at the stake, and allow corporate CEOs to legally hunt us for sport.
Still, I have to address one side issue of this grueling election season. Perhaps its just semantics, but I have officially run out of patience. I don’t want to hear one more social conservative bellow, “I want my country back!”
There are 300 million of us living here. This is not your country. Neither is it mine, his, or hers.
It is ours.
As cheesy as it sounds, we have to find a way to live together. And exclaiming (threatening?) that you are going to claim this nation for yourself — and the minority of Americans who happen to align with your political and/or religious beliefs — is not just selfish; it’s foolish.
After all, if you took the country, where would you keep it?
Of course, those insisting that this is “their” country are furious that so many people look different from them, or speak something other than English, or praise some other deity. This was never an issue back in those fabled good old days when everyone was straight, white, and Christian.
But the times are not a-changing. They have a-changed.
And insisting that there is some way to make it all go away, electorally or otherwise, is just a waste of time. So you can stop now — thanks.
November 7th, 2010 on 12:36 pm
Thank you, gracias, and mer-motherfucking-ci.
This “take back the country” slogan really is complete and utter foolishness. It is unrealistic, juvenile, short-sighted, and sets the stage for major disappointment. Personally, I’m not worried about the elections (mainly because I think American politics is mostly bullshit anyway), but no one in their right mind wants to be in office right now. Seriously. The Republicans think they’ve won something, but now they’re going to have to uphold their Devil’s bargain with the Tea Party, and they most assuredly don’t want to do that.
Now they’re the ones people are going to be looking to for “change”, and they’re going to be expected to get it the American way, i.e., right now. And when – not if – they can’t and don’t deliver on jobs, affordable healthcare, affordable higher education, etc…the consequences are going to be entertaining as well.
November 7th, 2010 on 2:45 pm
*as hell