WE ARE A DIVIDED COUNTRY
Who do we blame? Actually we can only blame ourselves. We set out on this path during the Reagan fever that convinced a lot of Americans that there were a lot of things wrong with our country when there were not that many. There were a lot of Americans who, easily misled and ignorant, believed all the crap that Reagan was spewing.
The sad part is that there are still people who believe in those fallacies; there are those who think that “government is too big” or that “government is the problem” or even the now discredited economic premise of “TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS”
The only other time in our history we were this divided was at the brink of our Civil War. There, the division was to pin brother against brother over some absurd notion than a man could own another man. Now, it is a far more complicated division and a complex if not impossible situation to solve.
On the one hand you have a political ideological division, on the other you have a division along religious lines and if you had a third hand you also have a division along racial and ethnic differences. Sprinkled in for good measure we also have a division when it comes to morality and the insistence of those homophobic amongst us who want to continue to discriminate and humiliate LGBT Americans. To them it is no big deal if a young gay person is beaten and left to die on a barbwire fence.
There are certain realities and facts that even those who choose to ignore them can’t refute them: We, as a nation have become a very exclusive OLIGARCHY; where approximately 2% 
of the population has any real wealth and any real power. The rest of us work for them and do so under mistaken pretenses. We are also misled to believe that ours is a REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY. The truth of the matter is that we are far from that. When we elect public servants to go and represent us, no sooner they have arrived in the halls of the Congress they are already in the pockets of the very rich and the big corporations victims of predatory lobbyists.
We have observed the emergence of very interesting phenomenon in our country; it is the birth of a movement self-named “The Tea Bag Party” which encompasses a lot of the fringe elements of right wing philosophies and misconceptions. While these people run the gambit
of many different points of views and ideologies ranging from the right to bear arms and the second amendment to abortion rights and the establishment of a theocracy. There are a good many absurd misconceptions like the President’s birth certificate or Death Panels. Most will agree on some universal points which are that “government is too big” and that we are “spending too much and getting the country into debt” but those are also shared by some of us on the left as well, so it is not a point of disagreement. Where we disagree is why government is too big. Some of us think that it is far too militaristic and squandering our treasure and the lives of our servicemen on foreign incursions that we have no right to be in.
What is a point of concern is that these people want to systematically abolish or do away with many of our government institutions. There are even government elected officials speaking out and suggesting their states should secede from the Union. If they have their way; gone will be: SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE AND MEDICAID, PUBLIC EDUCATION, FDA, UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION, THE IRS, TAXES AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The Federal Reserve is next in line and then the government in Washington will only need to concern itself with moral issues like DEFINING MARRIAGE AS A UNION BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN or to make church attendance obligatory, abortion illegal, 
prayer in the school mandatory and that sort of thing. That is the only thing in their minds that would justify the existence of a Federal Government; and that is more or less what they presently have in SOMALIA.
Ideologically I part ways with these people on many issues; but one of the ones that bothers me the most is that “GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG”. I have given this a lot of thought and I have come up with the conclusion that government is as big as it needs to be under the current circumstances. We are a large nation and the only super power. We spend more on military pursuits than all the other countries of the world combined. I seriously question our motivation and our reasons for this and in this case, I do think that “government is too big”. However, when it comes to the military, these right wingers are not willing to even consider any reductions. Never mind that most of the countries we are supposed to be “defending” have nothing threatening them. Most of them, already wealthy and prosperous could very easily foot the bill for their own 
defense.
It is also of great surprise to some of us on the left that some of these very people who are protesting and willing to even engage in armed conflict to defend the rights of the very rich and the corporations to exploit them and tax them to death. There are very clear indications that none of these people will ever be in a position where they have to look for protection or subsidies to remain obscenely wealthy; as a matter of fact most of them are either on Social Security or don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
Some of us on the left are accused of being too militant and too 
inflexible. We are too outspoken and very opinionated. We are supposed to be inflexible and the right wingers detest our proclivity for education, the sciences and in general place a high price on intellectuality. The right wing on the other hand appears to me to be just as adamant and as inflexible. Their position however, is one based on ignorance and misconceptions, on false accusations and outlandish conspiracy theories. The right is also plagued with racist sentiments and religious fanaticism.
If I am too harsh, too outspoken, too intolerant, I think I have a right to that. I will be as indignant and as confrontational as I need to be…you 
see; you are speaking about denying me and people like me the rights that everyone else enjoys. You are talking about turning America into a theocracy. You are talking about debilitating the Federal Government to a weak and meaningless entity…it will cease to have any relevance and that is hardly in keeping with one of the most affluent and powerful countries in the world.
In the past decade we have seen some weird shit happening in our country; ranging from the most lethal terrorist attack on 9/11 to a controversy of whether individuals who are homosexual should or 
should not be given the same rights as the rest of the population.
We have seen great rifts along racial lines…precipitated by the election of our first Black American President and this to some on the right is totally unacceptable. We are now experiencing a backlash of racist reactions and also thrown in for good measure a lot of xenophobia as exemplified in the Arizona Law of “SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS” which is being challenged by the Federal Government. Sadly, a lot of Americans see this law and think that it is justifiable and they are in favor of it. But they are not Hispanic, they don’t understand the potential for discrimination and abuses. And that is tragic.
We see how these right wingers think there is nothing wrong with our country spending 17% or more of our wealth on health care and getting half of what other industrialized, wealthy nations get for half of that.
Americans are angry over the Wall Street and Economic disaster brought about by Bush, his cronies and the Republican Party; yet they don’t want to bring in reforms, they are squeamish about any type of regulation that would prevent this from happening again.
They say that our country goes in cycles from left to right…but in my 
opinion, it has gone to the right for too long and there has been a lot of damage. What I am trying to say, and to warn everyone is that we are now closer to a violent confrontation of the two factions. The culture wars are going to devastate America and I can’t stand by and let that happen; if I need to point out the lies, if I need to quote the statistics, if I need to emphasize the facts, I will do so emphatically and unequivocally…in my mind, wrong is wrong and nobody should be asked to accept somebody else’s lie and adopt a half-truth in order to be conciliatory or bipartisan. There is no such thing as a little bit pregnant, nor is there a place where denying people their rights is acceptable…you either have them or you don’t.
I am saying this with resolve and determination: unless you own a corporation, have a home in the Hamptons and a few million bucks in the bank; then you should have no reason to support the Republicans or even entertain any of the insane ideas of the Tea Baggers. You are one of us, you belong either in the middle or in the poor class and any regulations, legislation or improvements this President is proposing is NOT SOCIALISM but an attempt to either level the playing field or to fix the mess the Republicans left behind.
I am really asking very somberly: Why is it you oppose President 
Obama? Could you please look deeply into your soul and tell me that there isn’t a degree of resentment because he is black or there is some racist ideology that motivates you? Are you just repeating what many did at Town Hall meetings in August of last year: “THEY ARE TAKING AWAY MY AMERICA”? This America you are thinking of is WASPHOM…White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, heterosexual, old men America. The good old days were not so good for some of us and America belongs to each and every one of us: Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Catholics, Muslims and Agnostics, Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Young, Old, and unless you get that through your head, we are heading towards a violent conflict.
